
Gopyrightl^? 



CDPyRIGHT DEPOSn^ 



NAPOLEON'S 

CAMPAIGN IN RUSSIA 

ANNO 1812 

MEDICO-HISTORICAL 



Dr. a/ rose 



WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BV O. MERTE, TAKEN FROM YELIN 

"■ IN R US SLA ND, 1812. ' ' 



PUBLISHED BY 

THE AUTHOR 
173 LEXINGTON AVE., NEW YORK 






Copyright, 1913, 

BY 

ACHILLES ROSE, M.D. 






CU332284 



PREFACE 

There is no campaign in the history of the world 
which has left such a deep impression upon the heart 
of the people than that of Napoleon in Russia, Anno 
1812. 

Of the soldiers of other wars who had not come 
home it was reported where they had ended on the field 
of honor. Of the great majority of the 600 thousand 
who had crossed the Niemen in the month of June 
Anno 1812, there was recorded in the list of their 
regiments, in the archives " Disappeared during the 
Retreat " and nothing else. 

When the few who had come home, those hollow 
eyed specters with their frozen hands, were asked 
about these comrades who had disappeared during the 
retreat, they could give nO' information, but they would 
speak of endless, of never heard of sufferings in the 
icy deserts of the north, of the cruelty of the Cossacks, 
of the atrocious acts of the Moushiks and the peasants 
of Lithuania, and, worst of all, of the infernal acts of 
the people of Wilna. And it would break the heart of 
those who listened to them. 

There is a medical history of the hundreds of thou- 
sands who have perished Anno 1812 in Russia from 
cold, hunger, fatigue or misery. 

Such medical history cannot be intelligible without 
some details of the history of events causing and sur- 

iii 



rounding the deaths from cold and hunger and fatigue. 
And such a history I have attempted to write. 

Casting a glance on the map on which the battle 
fields on the march to and from Moscow are marked, 
we notice that it was not a deep thrust which the attack 
of the French army had made into the colossus of 
Russia. From the Niemen to Mohilew, Ostrowno, 
Polotsk, Krasnoi, the first time, Smolensk, Walutina, 
Borodino, Conflagration of Moscow, and on the retreat 
the battles of Winkonow, Jaroslawetz, Wiasma, Vop, 
Krasnoi, the second time, Beresina, Wilna, Kowno; 
this is not a great distance, says Paul Holzhausen in 
his book " Die Deutschen in Russland 1812 " but a 
great piece of history. 

Holzhausen, whose book has furnished the most 
valuable material of which I could avail myself besides 
the dissertation of von Scherer, the book of Beaupre 
and the report of Krantz, and numerous monographs, 
has brought to light valuable papers of soldiers who 
had returned and had left their remembrances of life 
of the soldiers during the Russian campaign to their 
descendants and relatives who had kept these papers a 
sacred inheritance during one hundred years. 

The picture in the foreground of all histories of the 
Russian campaign is the shadow of the great warrior 
who led the troops, in whose invincibility all men who 
followed him Anno 1812 believed and by whom they 
stood in their soldier's honor, with a constancy without 
equal, a steadfastness which merits our admiration. 

Three fourths of the whole army belonged to nations 
whose real interests were in direct opposition to the 
war against Russia. Notwithstanding that many were 
aware of this fact, they fought as brave in battle as if 
their own highest interests were at stake. All wanted 

iv 



to uphold their own honor as men and the honor of 
their nations. And no matter how the individual 
soldier was thinking of Napoleon, whether he loved or 
hated him, there was not a single one in the whole 
army who did not have implicit confidence in his talent. 
Wherever the Emperor showed himself the soldiers 
believed in victory, where he appeared thousands of 
men shouted from the depth of their heart and with all 
the power of their voices Vive I'Empereur ! 

A wild martial spirit reigned in all lands, the bloody 
sword did not ask why and against whom it was drawn. 
To win glory for the own army, the own colors and 
standards was the parole of the day. All the masses 
of different nations felt as belonging to one great whole 
and were determined to act as such. 

And all this has to be considered in a medical history 
of the campaign Anno 1812. 

Throughout Germany, Napoleon is the favorite 
hero. In the homes of the common people, in the 
huts of the peasants, there are pictures ornamenting 
the walls, engravings which have turned yellow from 
age, the frames of which are worm eaten. These 
pictures represent a variety of subjects, but rarely 
are there pictures missing of scenes of the life of 
Napoleon. Generally they are divided into fields, 
and in the larger middle field you see the hero of 
small stature, on a white horse, from his fallow face 
the cold calculating eyes looking into a throng of 
bayonets, lances, bearskin caps, helmets^ and proud 
eagles. The graceful mouth, in contrast to the strong 
projecting chin, modifies somewhat the severity of 
this face, a face of marble of which it has been said 
that it gave the impression of a field of death, and 
the man with this face is accustomed to conquer, to 

V 



reign, to destroy. He is the inexorable God of war 
himself, not in glittering armour, but in a plain uni- 
form ornamented with one single order for personal 
bravery. The tuft of hair on his high and broad fore- 
head is like a sign of everlasting scorn. A gloomy, 
dreadfully attractive figure. In some of the pictures 
we see him in his plain gray overcoat and well-known 
hat, surrounded by marshals in splendid dress parade, 
forming a contrast to the simplicity of their master, 
on some elevation from which he looks into burning 
cities; again we see him unmoved by dreadful sur- 
roundings, riding through battle scenes of horror. 

Over my desk hangs such an old steel engraving, 
given to me by an old German lady who told me that 
her father had thought a great deal of it. On Sat- 
urdays he would wash the glass over the other pictures 
with water, but for washing the Napoleon picture he 
would use alcohol. 

Before this man kings have trembled, innumerable 
thousands have cheerfully given their blood, their 
lives; this man has been adored like a God and 
cursed Hke a devil. He has been the fate of the 
world until his hour struck. Many say providence 
had selected him to castigate the universe and its en- 
slaved peoples. A great German historian, Ger- 
vinus, has said : " He was the greatest benefactor 
of Germany who removed the gloriole from the heads 
crowned by the grace of God." He accompHshed great 
things because he had great power, he committed 
great faults because he was so powerful. Without 
his unrestricted power he could not have accom- 
plished one nor committed the other. 

History is logic. Whenever great wrongs prevail, 

some mighty men appear and arouse the people, and 

vi 



these extraordinary men are like the storm in winter 
which shatters and breaks what is rotten, preparing 
for spring. 

The German school boy, when he learns of the 
greatest warriors and conquerors, of Alexander the 
Great, of Julius Caesar, is most fascinated when 
he hears the history of the greatest of all the war- 
riors of the world, the history of Napoleon, and he 
is spellbound reading the awfully beautiful histories 
concerning his unheard of deeds, his rise without ex- 
ample, and his sudden downfall. 

And he, the great man, the soldier-emperor, he 
rides on his white horse in the boy's dreams, just 
as depicted on the engravings upon which the boys 
look with a kind of holy awe. 

The son of a Corsican lawyer, becoming in early 
manhood the master of the world, what could inflame 
youthful fiction more than this wonderful career? 

All great conquerors come to a barrier. Alex- 
ander, when he planned to subdue India, found the 
barrier at the Indus. Caesar found it at the Thames 
and at the Rhine. Our hero's fate was to be fulfilled 
at Moscow. His insatiable thirst to rule had led him 
into Russia. He stood at the height of his power 
and glory. Holland, Italy, a part of Germany, were 
French, and Germany especially groaned under the 
heel of severe xenocraty. The old German Empire 
had broken down, nothing of it wa^ left but a ridicu- 
lous name, " Romisches Reich deutscher Nation/^ 
The crowned heads of Germany held their thrones 
merely by the grace of Napoleon. Only Spain, united 
with England, dared him yet. Since Napoleon could 
not attack the English directly, on account of their 
power at sea, he tried to hit them where they were 

vii 



most sensitive, at their pocket. He instituted the 
continental blocus. Russia with the other lands of 
Continental Europe had to close her ports and mar- 
kets against England, but Russia soon became tired 
of this pressure and preferred a new war with Napo- 
leon to French domination. 

In giving this sketch of the popularity of Napo- 
leon's memory in Germany, I have availed myself of 
a German calendar for the year 191 3, called Der 
Lahrer hinkende Bote. 

Except the English translation of Beaupre's book 
I have taken from French and German writings only. 

I desire to thank Mr. S. Simonis, of New York, 
who has revised the entire manuscript and read the 
proofs ; next to him I am under obligations to Reichs 
Archiv Rat Dr. Striedinger, of Munich, and Mr. 
Franz Herrmann, of New York, who have loaned 
me most valuable books and pointed out important 
literature, and finally to Miss F. de Cerkez, who has 
aided me in the translation of some of the chapters. 



viii 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAQH 

Transportation of Cannon under Difficulties 67 

Attack of Cossacks 85 

" And Never Saw Daylight Again," 92 

Beresina 107 

Gate of Wilna 129 

In the Streets of Wilna , 138 

Retreat Across the Niemen 147 

" No Fear, We Shall Soon Follow You " 154 

In Prison 163 



Ix 



GROSSING THE NIEMEN 

On May loth., 1812, the Moniteur published the 
following note: ''The emperor has left to-day to 
inspect the Grand Army united at the Vistula." In 
France, in all parts of the Empire, the lassitude was 
extreme and the misery increasing, there was no com- 
merce, with dearth pronounced in twenty provinces, 
sedition of the hungry had broken out in Normandy, 
the gendarmes pursuing the "refractories" everywhere, 
and blood was shed in all thirty departments. 

There was the complaint of exhausted population, 
and loudest was the complaint of mothers whose sons 
had been killed in the war. 

Napoleon was aware of these evils and understood 
well their gravity, but he counted on his usual remedy, 
new victories; saying to himself that a great blow 
dealt in the north, throwing Russia and indirectly 
England at his feet, would again be the salvation of 
the situation. 

Caulaincourt, his ambassador to the Tzar, had told 
him in several conversations, one of which had lasted 
seven hours, that he would find mote terrible disaster 
in Russia than in Spain, that his army would be 
destroyed in the vastness of the country by the iron 
climate, that the Tzar would retire to the farthest 
Asiatic provinces rather than accept a dishonorable 
peace, that the Russians would retreat but never cede. 



Napoleon listened attentively to these prophetic 
words, showing surprise and emotion; then he fell 
into a profound reflection, but at the end of his revery, 
having enumerated once more his armies, all his people, 
he said : ''Bah ! a good battle will bring to reason the 
good determination of your friend Alexander." 

And in his entourage there were many who shared 
his optimism. The brilliant youth of that new aristoc- 
racy which had begun to fill his staff was anxious to 
equal the old soldiers of the revolution, the plebeian 
heroes. 

They prepared for war in a luxurious way and 
ordered sumptuous outfits and equipages which later 
on encumbered the roads of Germany, just as the 
carriages of the Prussian army had done in 1806. 

These French officers spoke of the Russian campaign 
as a six months' hunting party. 

Napoleon had calculated not to occupy the country 
between the Vistula and the Niemen before the end of 
May, when the late spring of those regions would 
have covered the fields with green, so that the 100 
thousand horses marching with the army could find 
feed. 

He traversed Germany between a double lane of 
kings, and princes bowed in an attitude of adoration. 

He found them at Mainz, at Wuerzburg, at Bam- 
berg, and his advance might be compared to the royal 
progress of an Asiatic potentate. 

Whole populations were turned out to salute him, 
and during the night the route over which the imperial 
carriages passed was illuminated by lighted piles of 
wood — an extensive line of fire in his honor. 

At Dresden he had the attendance of an emperor 

(that of Austria) and of kings and reigning princes, 

2 



who were present at his levees, together with their 
prime ministers (the better to catch, to report, the 
words he said, however insignificant) while high Ger- 
man dignitaries waited on him at the table. 

The Emperor and the Empress of Austria had come 
at their own desire to salute their daughter and their 
son-in-law and to present their good wishes for the 
success of the great expedition. 

Twelve days in succession he had at dinner the 
Emperor and Empress of Austria, the King and 
Queen of Saxony, the Saxon princes, the Prince 
Primate of the Confederation of the Rhine — even the 
King of Prussia was present; he offered his son for 
adjutant, which offer, however, Napoleon was tactful 
enough not to accept. 

All the kings and reigning princes from the other 
States of Germany presented their best wishes and 
pledged faithfulness to Napoleon in his war against 
Russia. 

Around the French emperor and empress at Dres- 
den there was a court the like of which Europe had 
never seen and never will see again. 

A Te Deum was sung to thank heaven for his 
arrival; there was a magnificent display of fireworks, 
but the climax of all was a great concert with an 
apotheosis showing, as the pricipal figure, the sun 
with the inscription : '' Less great and less beautiful 
than He." " It appears that these people take me for 
very stupid," said Napoleon to this, shrugging his 
shoulders. 

In speaking to one of his intimates he called the 

King of Prussia a sergeant instructor, une bete, but 

openly he treated him with great courtesy. 

He made rich presents: gold and enameled boxes, 

3 



jewelry and portraits of himself enriched with costly- 
stones. During the happy days of Dresden he enjoyed 
for once an intimate family life. 

On one occasion he held a long conversation with his 
father-in-law, during which he developed his plans 
of the Russian campaign, with minute and endless 
military details of which the emperor of Austria, being 
no strategist at all, understood nothing and said after- 
ward: "My son-in-law is alright here," pointing to 
the heart, "but here" — pointing to the forehead — ^he 
made a significant gesture. 

This criticism of Napoleon by the Emperor of 
Austria became popular and has been accepted by 
many writers. All reproaches about Cesarian insanity 
which were cast at the great man and his whole life 
date from that time. Some have said that he wanted 
to conquer England and Russia because these two he 
considered the arch enemies of Europe, that he fore- 
saw the threatening growth of these two countries as 
dangerous, and if he did not take advantage of the 
good opportunity the future of Europe would be at 
the mercy of Russia and England. 

The conquest of Russia was the keynote of his 
universal policy. 

The much calumniated blocus, say other writers, 
would finally have been the greatest blessing for 
continental Europe; its aim had already been attained 
in so far as many London houses failed, and famine 
reigned on the British islands in consequence of the 
high cost of living. 

And these writers say Napoleon had by no means 
become insane, but, on the contrary, frightfully clear. 
Another explanation given was that he worried about 
his dynasty, his child, entertaining fear that his empire 

4 



might fall to pieces after his death, like the empire of 
Charles the Great. 

Although he was enjoying good health, he had been 
warned by his physician, Corvisart, of cancer of the 
stomach, from which Napoleon's father had died. 
Some suspicious black specks had been observed in 
the vomit. Therefore no time was to be lost, all had 
to be done in haste. 

The rupture originated with Russia, for at the end 
of the year 1810 the Tzar annulled the blocus and even 
excluded French goods or placed an inordinate duty on 
them—this was, in fact, a declaration of war. Russia 
wanted war while the Spanish campaign was taxing 
France's military forces. 

The only reliable report of Napoleon's communica- 
tions at St. Helena has been given by General de 
G our gaud in the diary which he kept while with the 
Emperor from 1815 to 181 8, and which has been 
published in the year 1898. Here is what Napoleon 
said on this subject: 

On June 13th., 181 6, he remarked in conversation 
with Gourgaud, " I did not want the war with Russia, 
but Kurakin presented me a threatening note on 
account of Davoufs troops at Hamburg. Bassano 
and Champagny were mediocre ministers, they did not 
comprehend the intention which had dictated that 
note. I myself could not argue with Kurakin. They 
persuaded me that it meant declaration of war. Russia 
had taken off several divisions from Moldavia and 
would take the initiative with an attack on Warsaw. 
Kurakin threatened and asked for his passports. I 
myself believed finally they wanted war. I mobilized ! 
I sent Lauriston to Alexander, but he was not even 
received. From Dresden I sent Narhonne^ everything 

6 



convinced me that Russia wanted war. I crossed the ; 
Niemen near Wilna. 

'' Alexander sent a General to me to assure me that • 
he did not wish war ; I treated this ambassador very ; 
well, he dined with me, but I believed his mission was j 
a trick to prevent the cutting off of Bagratian. I , 
therefore continued the march. • 

" I did not wish to declare war against Russia, but j 
I had the impression that Russia wanted to break i 
with me. I knew very well the difficulties of such a I 
campaign." i 

Gourgaud wrote in his diary a conversation which j 
he had with Montholon on July 9th., 1817. "What was ! 
the real motive of the Russian campaign? I know! 
nothing about it, and perhaps the Emperor himself j 
did not know it. Did he intend to go to India after; 
having dethroned the Moscowitic dynasty? ThCj 
preparations, the tents which he took along, seem toj 
suggest this assumption." | 

Montholon answered: "According to the instruc-j 
tions which I, as ambassador, received I believe that 
His Majesty wanted to become Emperor of Germany,! 
that he aimed to be crowned as 'Emperor of the West'. ^ 
The Rhenish Confederation was made to understand! 
this idea. In Erfurt it was already a foregone con-; 
elusion, but Alexander demanded Constantinople, andj 
this Napoleon would not concede." 

At another conversation Napoleon admitted "I have) 
been too hasty. I should have remained a whole year^ 
at the Niemen and in Prussia, in order to give my, 
troops the much needed rest, to reorganize the army; 
and also to eat up Prussia." i 

All these details, Napoleon's admission included,] 
show that nobody knew and nobody knows why thisj 



gigantic expedition was undertaken. Certain is, how- 
ever, that England had a hand in the break between 
Napoleon and Alexander. 

When Napoleon called on the generals to lead them 
into this expedition they all had become settled to some 
extent, some in Paris, others on their possessions or 
as governors and commanders all over Europe, which 
at that time meant France; in consequence there 
existed a certain displeasure among these officers, 
especially among the older ones and those of high 
rank. 

The high positions which he had created for them 
and the rich incomes which they enjoyed had developed 
their and their wives' taste for a luxurious and 
brilliant mode of living. Besides, most of them, as 
well as their master, had attained the age between 
forty and fifty, their ambition gradually had relented, 
they had enough; and the family with which they 
had been together for very brief periods only between 
two campaigns, clung to them now and held them 
tightly. 

Notwithstanding these conditions, they all came 
when the Emperor called; after they had shaken off 
wife and children and had mounted in the saddle, while 
the old veterans and the young impatient soldiers were 
jubilant around them, they regained their good humor 
and went on to new victories, the brave men they 
always had been. 

Especially at first when, at the head of their mag- 
nificent regiments, they marched eastward through the 
conquered lands, from city to city, from castle to 
castle, like masters of the world, when in Dresden 
they met their comrades in war and their friends, and 
when they saw how all the crowned heads of Europe 

7 



bowed before their Emperor, then the Grand Army- 
was in its glory. 

As we know from history the Grand Army had 
contingents from twenty nationahties : Frenchmen, 
Germans, Itahans, Austrians, Swiss, Spaniards, Portu- 
guese, Poles, Illyrians, etc., and numbered over half 
a million men, with loo thousand horses, i,ooo cannon. 

According to Bleibtreu (Die grosse Armee, Stutt- 
gart, 1908), and Kielland (Rings um Napoleon, Leip- 
zig, 1907) the Grand Army was made up as follows: 

First Corps — ^Davout, six divisions of the best 
troops under the command of Morand, 
Friant, Gudin. In this corps were, besides 
French, Badensian, Dutch, and Polish regi- 
ments. Davout commanded also 17 thousand 
Prussian soldiers under General Grawert. 
Among the generals were Compans and 
Pajol, the engineer Haxo, and the handsome 
General Friederich 67.000 

Second Corps — Oudinot with the divisions of 
Generals Merle, Legrand, Maison, Lannes' 
and Massena's veterans 40,000 

Third Corps — Ney with two divisions of veter- 
ans of Lannes; to this corps belonged the 
Wuerttembergians who had served under Ney 
before 49,000 

Fourth Corps — Prince Eugene with Junot as 
second commander, and the Generals 
Grouchy, Broussier, the two brothers Delzon. 
In this corps were the best soldiers of the 
Italian army 45,ooo 

The Fifth Corps — Prince Poniatowski. Sol- 
diers of all arms, mostly Poles 26,000 

8 



The Sixth Corps — General St Cyr. Mostly 
foreigners who had served in the French 
army since 1809 25,000 

The Seventh Corps — General Reynier. Mostly 

Saxons and Poles 17,000 

The Eighth Corps — King Jerome. Westphal- 
ians and Hessians 18,000 

Besides, there were four corps of reserve 
cavalry distributed among the corps of Da- 
vout, Oudinot, and Ney; the rest, excellent 
horsemen, marched with the Imperial Guard, 15,000 

The Imperial Guards were commanded by the 
Marshals Mortier and Lefebvre and were 
divided into two corps, the old guard and the 
young guard , 47,000 

There was the engineer park, composed of sappers, 
miners, pontooneers and military mechanicians of all 
descriptions, the artillery park, and train of wagons 
with attendants and horses. To these two trains 
alone belonged 18 thousand horses. 

In the active army which marched toward Russia 
there Avere 423 thousand well drilled soldiers ; nam.e]y, 
300 thousand infantry, 70 thousand cavalry and 30 
thousand artillery with i thousand cannon, 6 pontoon 
trains, ambulances, and also provisions for one month. 

As reserve, the ninth corps — ^Marshal Victor — and 
the tenth corps — Augereau — were stationed near 
Magdeburg, ready to complete the army gradually. 

The whole army which marched to Russia consisted 
of 620 thousand men. 

The question of subsistence for this immense body 
occupied Napoleon chiefly. He felt the extraordinary 
difficulty and great danger, he knew that at the 

9 



moment of coming in contact with the enemy all the 
corps would be out of supplies in twenty or twenty- 
five days if there were no great reserves of bread, 
biscuit, rice, etc., closely following the army. 

His system was that of requisition. To secure the 
needed supplies the commanders of the corps were 
ordered to seize in the country all the grain which 
could be found and at once to convert it into flour, 
with methodic activity. 

Napoleon himself superintended and hastened the 
work. At twenty different places along the Vistula 
he had the grinding done unceasingly, distributing the 
flour thus obtained among the corps and expediting 
its transport by every possible means. He even 
invented new measures for this purpose, among which 
the well-known formation of battalions of cattle, an 
immense rolling stock destined to follow the columns 
to serve twofold : for transportation of provisions, and 
finally as food. 

With the beginning of June these supreme prepara- 
tions had been made or seemed to have been made. 
In the lands through which the troops were to march 
before they reached the Niemen, the spring had done 
its work; there was abundance of forage. 

Napoleon had impatiently awaited this time during 
ten months of secret activity. 

It was the hope of Russia and the fear of those 
Frenchmen who understood the Russian climate that 
the campaign would drag into the winter. 

Russians already told of the village blacksmith who 
laughed when he was shown a French horseshoe which 
had been found on the road, and said: "Not one of 
these horses will leave Russia if the army remains 
till frost sets in !" The French horseshoes had neither 

10 



pins nor barbed hooks, and it would be impossible for 
horses thus shod to draw cannons and heavy wagons 
up and down hill over frozen and slippery roads. 

The annihilation of the Grand Army is not to be 
attributed to the cold and the fearful conditions on 
the retreat from Moscow alone, the army was in 
reality annihilated before it reached Russia, as we shall 
see by the following description which I have taken 
from a Latin dissertation (translated also into Ger- 
man) of the surgeon of a Wuerttembergian regiment, 
Ch. lo. von Scherer, who had served through the 
whole campaign and in the year 1820 had submitted 
this dissertation, "Historia Morborum, qui* in Expedi- 
tione Contra Russiam Anno 181 2 Facta Legiones 
Wuerttembergicas invaserunt, praesertim eorum qui 
frigore orti sunt,'' to the Medical Faculty, presided 
over by F. G. Gmelin, to obtain the degree of doctor of 
medicine. 

The diseases which befell the soldiers in Russia 
extended over the whole army, von Scherer, however, 
gives his own observations only, which he had made 
while serving in the Wuerttembergian corps of four- 
teen to fifteen thousand men. 

The expedition into Russia in the year 1 8 12 was 
divided into ten divisions, each of these numbering 
fifty to sixty thousand men, all healthy, robust, most 
of them hardened in war. The Wuerttembergians were 
commanded by General Count von Scheeler and the 
French General Marchand; the highest commander 
was Marshal Ney. 

In the beginning of May, 1812, the great army of 
Napoleon arrived at the frontier of Poland, whence 
it proceeded by forced and most tiresome marches to 
the river Niemen, which forms the boundary between 

11 



Lithuania and Poland, arriving at the borders of the 
river in the middle of June. 

An immense body of soldiers (500,000) met near 
the city of Kowno, crossed the Niemen on pontoons, 
and formed, under the eyes of the Emperor, in endless 
battle line on the other side. 

The forced march continued day and night over 
the sandy soil of Poland. The tropical heat during the 
day and the low temperature at night, the frequent 
rainstorms from the north, the camping on bare and 
often wet ground, the ever increasing want of pure 
water and fresh provisions, the immense masses of 
dust, which, cloudlike, hung over the marching columns 
— all these difficulties put together had sapped the 
strength of the soldiers already at the beginning of 
the campaign. Many were taken sick before they 
reached the Niemen. 

The march through Lithuania was hastened as much 
as the march through Poland. Provisions became 
scarcer all the time, meat from cattle that had suffered 
from starvation and exhaustion was for a long time 
the soldiers' only food. The great heat, and the inhala- 
tion of sand and dust, dried the tissues of the body, 
and the thirsty soldiers longed in vain for a drink of 
water. Often there was no other opportunity to quench 
the thirst than the water afforded by the swamps. The 
officers were powerless to prevent the soldiers from 
kneeling down at stagnant pools and drinking the foul 
water without stint. 

Thus the army, tired to the utmost from overexer- 
tion and privation, and disposed to sickness, entered 
the land of the enemy. The forced marches were 

continued during the day, through sand and dust, until 

12 



stormy weather set in with rain, followed by cold 
winds. 

With the appearance of bad weather, dysentery, 
which had already been observed at the time of the 
crossing of the Niemen, shewed itself with greater 
severity. The route the artpy had taken from camp 
to camp was marked by offensive evacuations. The 
number of the sick became, so great that . they could 
not all be attended to, and jnedical treatment became 
illusory when the supply of medicaments was ex- 
hausted. 

The greater part of the army fought in vain, how- 
ever courageously, against the extending evil. As 
everything was wanting of which the sick were in need, 
there was no barrier against the spread of the disease, 
while at the same time the privations and hardships 
which had caused it continued and reached their 
climax. 

Some of these soldiers would march, equipped with 
knapsack and arms, apparently in good spirits, but 
suddenly would succumb and die. Others, especially 
those of strong constitution, would become melancholy 
and commit suicide. The number of deaths increased 
from day to day. 

Marvelous was the effect of emotion on the disease. 
Surgeon-General von Kohlreuter, during and after 
the battle of Smolensk, witnessed this influence. Of 
four thousand Wuerttembergians who took part in 
that battle, there were few quite free from dysentery. 

Tired and depressed, the army dragged along; but 

as soon as the soldiers heard the cannon in the distance, 

telling them the battle was beginning, they emerged at 

once from their lethargy ; the expression of their faces, 

which had been one of sadness, changed to one of joy 

13 



dna hilarity. Joyfulty and with great bravery they 
went into action. During the four days that the battle 
lasted, and for some days afterward, dysentery disap- 
peared as if banished by magic. When the battle was 
over and the privations were the same again as they 
had been, the disease returned with the same severity 
as before — nay, even worse, and the soldiers fell into 
complete lethargy. 

The necropsy of those who had died from dysentery 
revealed derangement of the digestive organs; the 
stomach, the large intestine, mostly the rectum, were 
inflamed ; the intima of stomach and duodenum, some- 
time the whole intestine, were atonic. In some cases 
there were small ulcers, with jagged margins, in the 
stomach, especially in its fundus, and in the rectum ; in 
other cases dysentery had proceeded to such an extent 
that pretty large ulcers had developed, extending from 
the stomach into the small and from there into the 
large intestine, into the rectum. These ulcers were of 
sizes varying from that of a lentil to the size of a 
walnut. Where the disease had been progressive 
the intima, the mucosa and submucosa — very seldom, 
however, the serosa — were perforated by ulcers; in 
many cases there were gangraenous patches in the 
fundus of the stomach and along the intestinal tract. 
The gastric juice smelled highly acid, frequently the 
liver was discolored and contained a bluish liquid, its 
lower part in most cases hardened and bluish ; the gall 
bladder, as a rule, was empty or contained only a small 
amount of bile; the mesenteric glands were mostly 
inflamed, sometimes purulent; the mesenteric and 
visceral vessels appeared often as if studded with 
blood. Such patients had suffered sometimes from 
gastralgy, had had a great craving for food, especially 



14 



vegetables, but were during that time entirely free 
from fever. 

Remarkably sudden disaster followed the immoder- 
ate use of alcohol. Some Wuerttembergian soldiers, 
who during the first days of July had been sent on 
requisition, had discovered large quantities of brandy 
in a nobleman's mansion, and had indulged in its im- 
moderate use and died, like all dysentery patients who 
took too much alcohol. 

The number of Wuerttembergians afflicted with 
dysentery, while on the march from the Niemen to the 
Dwina, amounted to three thousand, at least this many 
were left behind in the hospitals of Malaty, Wilna, 
Disna, Strizzowan and Witepsk. The number of 
deaths in the hospitals increased as the disease pro- 
ceeded, from day to day, and the number of those 
who died on the march was not small. Exact hospital 
statistics cannot be given except of Strizzowan, which 
was the only hospital from which lists had been pre- 
served; and here von Scherer did duty during six 
weeks. Out of 902 patients 301 died during the first 
three weeks; during the other three weeks when the 
patients had better care only 36 died. 

In the hospitals established on the march, in haste, 
in poor villages, medicaments were either wanting 
entirely or could be had only in insufficient quantity. 
All medical plants which grew on the soil in that cli- 
mate were utilized by the surgeons, as, for instance in 
the hospital of Witepsk, huckleberries and the root of 
tormentilla. Establishing the hospital in Strizzowan 
von Scherer placed some of his patients in the castle, 
others in a barn and the rest in stables. Not without 
great difficulties and under dangers he procured pro- 
visions from the neighborhood. As medicaments he 

15 



used, and sometimes with really good results, the fol- 
lowing plants which were found in abundance in the 
vicinity: i. Cochlearia armoracia; 2. Acorus cal- 
amus; 3. Allium sativum; 4. Raphanus sativus; 5. 
Menyanthes trifoliata; 6. Salvia officinalis. 

In the course of the following three weeks General 
Count von Scheeler handed him several thousand 
florins to be used for the alleviation of the suf- 
ferings of the soldiers under his care, and von Scherer 
procured from great distances, namely, from the 
Polish cities Mohilew, Minsk and Wilna, suitable 
medicines and provisions. The proper diet which 
could now be secured, together with best medicines, 
had an excellent effect. This is seen at a glance when 
perusing the statistics of the first three and the last 
three weeks. In some cases in which the patients had 
been on the way to recovery, insignificant causes would 
bring relapse. Potatoes grew in abundance in the 
vicinity of the hospital, and patients would clandes- 
tinely help themselves and eat them in excessive 
quantities, with fatal result. 

In some the intestinal tract remained very weak for 
a long time. Emaciation of the convalescents im- 
proved only very slowly. Remarkable was a certain 
mental depression or indolence which remained in 
many patients. Even in officers who von Scherer had 
known as energetic and good-humored men there was 
seen for a long time a morose condition and very 
noticeable dulness. Whatever they undertook was 
done slowly and imperfectly. Sometimes, even with a 
kind of wickedness, they showed an inclination to steal 
or do something forbidden. Sometimes it was difficult 
to induce them to take exercise, von Scherer, in 
order to cheer up the convalescents, ordered daily 

16 



walks under guard, and this was the more necessary 
as oedemata developed on the extremities" in those 
who remained motionless on their couches. 

How injurious the immoderate use of alcoholic bev- 
erages proved to be was demonstrated in three cases 
of convalescents, who were still somewhat weak. They 
had secretly procured some bottles of brandy from 
the cellar of the hospital, and with the idea of having a 
good time had drunk all of it in one sitting. Very soon 
they had dangerous symptoms : abdominal pain, 
nausea and vomiting followed by lachrymation from 
the protruding and inflamicd eyes. They fell down 
senseless, had liquid and highly offensive evacuations 
and died, in spite of all medical aid, in six hours. On 
the abdomen, the neck, the chest and especially on the 
feet of the corpses of these men there were gangraen- 
ous spots of different sizes, a plain proof that the 
acute inflammation, gangraene and putrefaction had 
been caused by the excessive irritation of the extremely 
weak -body. Circumstances forbade necropsy in these 
cases. 

Among different publications on the medical history 
of Napoleon's campaign in 1812, which I happened to 
find, was a dissertation of Marin Bunoust, "Considera- 
tions generales sur la congelation pendant V ivresse 
observee en Russie en 1812." Paris, 1817 (published, 
therefore, three years before publication of von 
Scherer's dissertation), in which the author wishes 
to show that the physiological effect of drunkenness 
on the organism is identical with that of extreme cold. 

von Scherer, after the hospital of Strizzowan had 
been evacuated, again joined his regiment. The French 
army in forced marches pursued the enemy on the 
road to Moscow over Ostrowno, Witepsk and Smo- 

17 



lensk. Dysentery did not abate. In the hospitals of 
Smolensk, Wiasma and Ghiat, von Scherer found, 
besides the wounded from the battles of Krasnoe, 
Smolensk and Borodino, a great number of dysentery 
patients; many died on the march. The whole 
presented a pitiful sight, and the soldiers' contempt of 
life excited horror. 

We shall return to von Scherer's dissertation when 
describing the retreat from Moscow. 

While the dissertation of von Scherer treats on the 
fate of the Wuerttembergian corps of Napoleon's 
grand army, a memoir of First Lieutenant von Borcke 
who served as adjutant of General von Ochs in the 
Westphalian corps relates the fate of the Westphalians 
in the grand army of 1812. 

The Westphalians, 23,747 men strong, left Cassel 
in the month of March, 1812, to unite with the French 
army. One of the regiments was sent later and joined 
the corps while the army was on the retreat from Mos- 
cow at Moshaisk. This regiment, like another, which 
followed still later and joined the army on the retreat 
at Wilna, was annihilated. Of the 23,747 men a few 
hundred finally returned. On March 24th., the West- 
phaHans crossed the Elbe, von Borcke (it is a com- 
mon error in American literature to spell the predicate 
of nobility von with a capital V when at the beginning 
of a period, while neither von nor the corresponding 
French de as predicate of nobility should ever be 
spelled with a capital) at that time suffered from 
intermittent fever, but was cured by the use of calisaya 
bark. I mention this to call attention to the fact that 
quinine was not known in the year 18 12. When the 
corps marched into Poland the abundance of pro- 
visions v/hich the soldiers had enjoyed, came to an end. 

18- 



There were no magazines from which rations could 
have been distributed, and the poor PoHsh peasants, 
upon whom requisitions should have been made, had 
nothing for the soldiers. Disorder among the troops 
who thus far had distinguished themselves by strictest 
discipline, made its appearance. How the army was 
harassed by the plague of dysentery, how the soldiers 
were marching during great heat, insufficiently sup- 
plied in every way, and how they suffered from mani- 
fold hardships, has been described in von Scherer's 
dissertation. The Westphalian corps was in as pre- 
carious a condition as the Wuerttembergian, as in fact 
the whole army and the Westphalian battalions were 
already reduced to one-half their former number. 
Many soldiers had remained behind on account of 
sickness or exhaustion, and officers were sent back to 
bring them to the ranks again. 

The whole army would have dissolved if the march 
had not been interrupted. Napoleon ordered a stay. 
An order from him called for a rally of the troops, for 
the completion of war material, ammunition, and 
horses and provisions; but where to take all these 
things from? The war had not yet begun, and the 
troops were already in danger of starvation. Only 
with sadness and fear could the soldiers, under these 
circumstances, look into the future. 

In what way, says Ebstein, can this great want, this 
insufficient supply of provisions, which made itself 
felt even at the beginning of the campaign, be 
explained ? It has been shown how Napoleon exerted 
himself to meet the extraordinary difficulty of supply- 
ing the grand army of half a million of men and 
100,000 horses with provisions, how well he was 

aware of the great danger in this regard, how he 

19 



superintended and hastened the work of providing for 
men and horses by every possible means, that he 
understood all the circumstances surrounding the 
march of the grand army through a vast country 
populated by few, and these mostly serfs who had 
barely sufficient food for themselves and no means to 
replenish their stock in case it should have been 
exhausted by Napoleon's system of requisition, not to 
speak of the marauding to which the French soldiers 
were soon forced to resort. Ebstein says that the 
cause of the sad, the wretched condition concerning 
supplies was due to the fact that incompetent officers 
had been appointed as commissaries of the army ; they 
held high military rank, were independent and 
could not be easily reached for their faults. It hap- 
pened that soldiers were starving near well filled 
magazines, such magazines at Kowno, Wilna, Minsk, 
Orcha being not only well, but over, filled, while the 
passing troops were in dire need. We shall later on 
come to frightful details of this kind. 

The miserable maintenance had from the beginning 
a demoralizing effect on the men, manifested by deser- 
tion, insubordination, marauding, vandalism. General 
Sir Robert Wilson, British commissioner with the 
headquarters of the Russian army, quoted by Ebstein, 
says : "The French army, from its very entrance into 
the Russian territory (and this cannot be repeated too 
often to lend the proper weight to the consequences 
resulting therefrom), notwithstanding order on order 
and some exemplary punishments, had been incor- 
rigibly guilty of every excess. It had not only seized 
with violence all that its wants demanded, but de- 
stroyed in mere wantonness what did not tempt its 

cupidity. No vandal ferocity was ever more destruc- 

20 



live. Those crimes, however, were not committed 
with impunity. Want, sickness, and an enraged 
peasantry, inflicted terrible reprisals, and caused daily 
a fearful reduction of numbers." 

But this description of the Englishman will apply to 
every army in which there are such difficulties in 
obtaining the necessary supplies as they existed here 
on the forced marches. 

Further, he does not speak of the severe punish- 
ments meted out to the culprits. By order of Napoleon 
entire squads of marauders were shot, von Roos, 
chief physician of a Wuerttembergian regiment, has 
seen that before their execution they had to dig their 
own graves. 

In Wilna already Davout ordered the execution of 
70, and in Minsk of 13, marauders. 

A Westphalian officer, von Lossberg, commander 
of a battalion, wrote in his letters to his wife — which 
are of great value to the history of the campaign — 
from Toloschin on July 25 : "On our march we met a 
detachment of Davout's corps; they shot before our 
eyes a commissary of the army who had been con- 
demned to death for fraud. He had sold for 200 
dollars provisions which had been intended for the 
soldiers." 

Napoleon had stayed several days at Thorn, inspect- 
ing the departing troops, visiting the magazines, be- 
stowing a last glance upon everything. Before the 
guards left their cantonments he wanted to see the dif- 
ferent corps and hold a great review. He loved to 
see again the manly figures of the soldiers, their 
chests of iron, these braves who stood before him, 
immovable in parade, irresistible in fight. Their bear- 
ing and their expression gave him pleasure. Notwith- 

21 



standing the fatigues and the privations of the march, 
enthusiasm shone on all the faces, in the brightening 
of all the eyes. He wanted to give with his own 
mouth the order "forward march" to the regiments of 
the guard, and he saw the endless defile of these 
proud uniforms, heard the uninterrupted beating of 
the drums, the sound of the trumpets, the acclamation 
"Vive I'Empereur" of the beautiful troops, the de- 
parture of the officers, every one of whom had orders 
to set in motion or to halt human masses. All this 
great movement around him, by his will, at his word, 
animated and excited him. Now, the lot having irre- 
vocably been cast, he surrenders himself completely 
to his instincts as warrior, he feels himself only sol- 
dier, the greatest and most ardent who has existed, 
he dreams of nothing but victories and conquests. At 
night, after having given orders all day long, he slept 
only at intervals, passing part of the night walking 
up and down. One night those on duty, who slept 
near his room, were surprised hearing him sing with 
plain voice a popular song of the soldiers of the 
republic. 

On June 6th., Napoleon left Thorn while all the 
army was marching. At Danzig he saw Murat, whom 
he had called directly from Naples. He did not wish 
him near except for the fight where he would be an 
ornament in battle and set a magnificent example. 
Otherwise he considered his presence useless and 
hurtful. He had taken special pains to keep him 
away from Dresden, from the assembly of sovereigns, 
from contact with dynasties of the ancien regime, 
especially of the house of Austria, because of his 
being a king of recent origin. He feared the indis- 
cretion of the newly made kings when brought 

22 



together with the sovereigns by the grace of God. He 
did not wish that any intimacy should develop between 
them. 

The meeting of the two brothers-in-law was at first 
cold and painful. Each had a grievance against the 
other and did not restrain himself at all to pronounce 
it. Murat complained, as he had done before, that he, 
as King of Naples, was an instrument of domina- 
tion and tyranny, and added that he could find a way 
to extricate himself from such an intolerable exigency. 
Napoleon reproached Murat of his more and more 
marked inclination to disobey, of his digression in 
language and conduct, and of his suspicious actions. He 
looked at him with a severe mien, spoke harsh words, 
and treated him altogether with severity. But then, 
suddenly changing his tone, he spoke to him in a lan- 
guage of friendship, of wounded and misunderstood 
friendship, became emotional, complained of ingrati- 
tude, and recalled the memory of their long affection, 
their military comradery. The king who was easily 
moved, was thinking of all the generosity he had 
enjoyed, and could not resist the appeal, he became 
emotional in his turn, almost shed tears, forgot all • 
grief for a while, and was conquered. 

And in the evening before his intimates the em- 
peror lauded himself for having played excellent 
comedy to regain Murat, that he had by turns and 
very successfully enacted anger and sentimentality 
with this Italian pantaleone, but, added he, Murat has 
a good heart. 

Ahead of the emperor, between Danzig and Koe- 

nigsberg, traversing East Prussia and some districts of 

Poland, marched the army — under what difficulties 

has been described. At the same time, through the 

23 



Baltic and the Frische Haff ^ came the more ponderous 
war material, the pontoons and the heaviest artillery, 
the siege guns. To complete the supply of provisions 
before entering upon the campaign the troops ex- 
hausted the land by making extensive requisitions. The 
emperor had wished that all should go on regularly 
and that everything taken from the inhabitants should 
be paid for, but this the soldiers did not consider. 
They took and emptied the granaries, tore down the 
straw from the roofs of the peasants' houses, barns, 
and stables to make litter for their horses, and treated 
the inhabitants not as friends, but as if they were 
people of a conquered land. The cavalry which passed 
first helped themselves for their horses to all the hay 
and all the grass, the artillery and the train were 
obliged to take from the fields the green barley and 
oats, and the army altogether ruined the population 
where it passed. The men obliged to disperse during 
a part of the day as foragers, got into the habit 
of disbanding and of looseness of discipline, and the 
impossibility manifested itself to keep in order and in 
ranks the multitude of different races, different in 
languages, who with their many vehicles represented 
a regular migration. 

Everything became monotonous — ^the country, the 
absence of an enemy. They found Prussia, and 
especially Poland, ugly, dirty, miserable, all the houses 
were full of dirt and vermin, domestic animals of all 
kinds were the intimate syntrophoi of the peasants in 
their living rooms. The soldiers bore badly the incon- 
venience of the lodging, the coolness of the night 
following the burning heat of the day, the fogs in the 
mornings. But they consoled themselves with illu- 
sions, painting the future in rosy colors, hoping to 

24 



find across the Niemen a better soil, a different people, 
more favorable to the soldier, and longed for Russia 
as for the promised land. 

The Grand Army had arrived at the Niemen. It 
was on June 24th., the sun rose radiant and lightened 
with his fire a magnificent scene. To the troops was 
read a short and energetic proclamation. Napoleon 
came out of his tent, surrounded by his officers, 
and contemplated with his field glass the sight of 
this prodigious force; hundreds of thousands of sol- 
diers united in one place! One could not find any- 
thing comparable to the enthusiasm which the 
presence of Napoleon inspired on that day. 
The right bank of the river was covered with these 
magnificent troops; they descended from the heights 
and spread out in long files over the three bridges, 
resembling three currents ; the rays of the sun glit- 
tered on the bayonets and helmets, and the cry Vive 
r Empereur ! was heard incessantly. 

If I were to give a full description to do justice 
to the magnificent spectacle I would have to quote 
from the journals of that epoch, and if I were a 
painter I could not find a greater subject for my 
art. 



25 



ON TO MOSCOW 

Arrived in Russia the French were soon disap- 
pointed; gloomy forests and sterile soil met the eye, 
all was sad and silent. After the army had passed the 
Niemen and entered into Poland the misery, instead 
of diminishing, increased, the hour had struck for 
these unfortunates. The enemy destroyed everything 
on retreating, the cattle were taken to distant prov- 
inces ; the French saw the destruction of the fields, the 
villages were deserted, the peasants fled upon the ap- 
pearance of the French army, all inhabitants had left 
except the Jews. When the army came to Lithuania 
everything seemed to be in league against the French. 
It was a rainy season, the soldiers marched through 
vast and gloomy forests, and all was melancholy. One 
could have imagined himself to be in a desert if it 
had not been for the vehicles, the cursing of the 
drivers, discontented on account of hunger and fatigue, 
the imprecations of the soldiers on every occasion; 
bad humor, due to privations, prevailed everywhere. 
It would seem as if the furies of hell were marching 
at the heels of the army. The roads were in a terrible 
condition, almost unpassable on account of the rain 
which had been continuous since the crossing of the 
Niemen; the artillery wagons especially gave great 

trouble in passing marshes, and, on account of the 

26 



extreme exhaustion of the horses, a great many of 
these vehicles had to be abandoned. The horses 
receiving no nourishment but green herbs could resist 
even less than the men and they fell by the hundred. 

The improper feeding of the animals caused gastric 
disturbances, alternately diarrhoea and constipation, 
enormous tympanitis, peritonitis. It is touching to 
read of the devotion of German cavalrymen to their 
poor horses. They v^ould introduce the whole arm 
into the bowel to relieve the suffering creatures of the 
accumulated fecal masses. 

As the army advanced over these roads the extreme 
want of provisions was bitterly felt. The warriors 
already reduced to such an excess of misery were 
exposed to rain without being able to dry themselves ; 
to nourish themselves they were forced to resort to 
the most horrible marauding, and sometimes they had 
nothing to eat for twenty-four hours or even longer. 
They ran through the land in all directions, disregard- 
ing all dangers, sometimes many miles away from 
the route, to find provisions. Wherever they came 
they went through the houses from the foundation to 
the roof, and when they found animals they took them 
away ; no attention was paid to the feeling of the poor 
peasants and nothing was considered as being too 
harsh for them; in most instances the latter had run 
away for fear of maltreatment. Nothing is so afflict- 
ing as to see the rapacity of pillaging soldiers, stealing 
and destroying everything coming under their hands. 
They took to excess vodka found in the magazines 
which the enemy had not destroyed, or in the castles 
off the main route. In consequence of this abuse of 
alcohol while in their feeble condition many perished. 
The enemy retreated behind the Dwina and fortified 

27 



himself in camp. It was thought that he would give 
battle, and all enjoyed this prospect. 

On July 20, at a time when the conditions of the 
army were already terrible, the heat became excessive. 
The rains ceased; there were no rainy days, except 
an occasional storm, until September 17. The poor 
infantrymen were to be pitied ; they had to carry their 
arms, their effects, their cartridges, harassed by con- 
tinuous fatigue, overpowered by hunger and a thou- 
sand sorrows, and were obliged to march 10, 12, 15, 
and sometimes even 16 and 17 miles a day over dusty 
roads under a burning sun, all the time tormented by 
a cruel thirst. But all this has been fully described in 
an earlier chapter. 

On July 23 the Prince of Eckmuehl (Davout) had 
a very hot engagement with the Russian army corps 
under Prince Bagratian before Mohilew; on July 25, 
a bloody battle was fought near Ostrowno. The 
houses and other buildings of Ostrowno were filled 
with wounded, the battlefield covered with corpses of 
men and horses, and the hot weather caused quick 
putrefaction. Kerckhove visited the battlefield on 
June 28 and says: "I have no words to describe the 
horror of seeing the unburied cadavers, infesting the 
air, and among the dead many helpless wounded with- 
out a drop of water, exposed to the hot sun, crying in 
rage and despair." 

Napoleon made preparations to attack on July 28, 
but the enemy had retreated. At Witepsk, hospitals 
were established for the wounded from Ostrowno, 
among them 800 Russians. However, the designation 
"hospital" is hardly applicable, for everything was 
wanting; the patients in infected air, crowded, and 

surrounded by uncleanliness, without food or medi- 

28 



cines. These hospitals, were in reality death-houses. 
The physicians did what they could. On August i8, 
the French army entered Smolensk which had been 
destroyed by projectiles and by fire; ruins filled with 
the dead and dying; and in the midst of this desolation 
the terror-stricken inhabitants running everywhere, 
looking for members of their families — many of whom 
had been killed by bullets or by flames — ^or sitting 
before their still smoking homes, tearing their hair, 
a picture of distress truly heartrending. The soldiers 
who were the first to enter Smolensk found flour, 
brandy and wine, but these things were devoured in 
an instant. There were lo thousand wounded in the 
so-called hospitals, and among these unfortunates 
typhus and hospital gangraene developed rapidly; the 
sick lying on the floor without even straw. 
Holzhausen gives the following description: 
After Smolensk had been evacuated by the Russians, 
most houses had been burnt out; the retreating Rus- 
sians had destroyed everything that could be of any 
use. Corpses everywhere. Nobody had time to 
remove them, and the cannons, the freight wagons, 
the horses, and the infantry passed over them. On 
August 17th. and i8th., was the battle of Polotsk in 
which the Bavarians distinguished themselves. There 
were no medicines for the wounded, not even drinking 
water, no bread, no salt. Of the many unhealthy 
places in Russia this is the worst, it swarms with 
insects. Nostalgia was prevailing. They had a 
so-called dying chamber in the hospital for which the 
soldiers were longing, to rest there on straw, never 
to rise again. 

Awaiting their last the pious Bavarians repeated 
aloud their rosary, took refuge with the Jesuits, who 

29 



had a convent at Polotsk, to receive the consolation 
of their religion. 

Some thought Napoleon would rest here to establish 
the Polish kingdom. But this reasonable idea, if he 
had ever entertained it, he discarded. By giving his 
troops winter quarters, establishing magazines and 
hospitals he would have succeeded in subduing Russia 
by reinforcing his army; instead of all this he went 
on to Moscow without provisions, without magazines. 

On August 30, the army reached Wiasma, a city of 
8 thousand or 9 thousand inhabitants which had been 
set on fire upon the approach of the French. All the 
inhabitants had left. The soldiers fought the flames 
and saved some houses into which they brought those 
of their wounded and sick who could not drag them- 
selves any farther. Cases of typhus were numerous. 
From Wiasma the army marched to Ghiat, a city of 
6 thousand or 7 thousand inhabitants ; at this place 
Napoleon gave a two days' rest in order that the army 
could rally, clean their arms and prepare for battle 
(the battle of Borodino on September 7. This 
battle is known under three names : the Russians have 
called it after the village of Borodino, of 200 inhabit- 
ants, near the battlefield and have now erected a 
monument there, a collonade crowned with a cross; 
some historians have called it the battle of Moshaisk, 
after a nearby town of 4 thousand inhabitants, and 
Napoleon has named it the battle of the Moskwa, 
after a river near the battlefield.) Napoleon had only 
120 thousand to 130 thousand under arms, about 
as many as the Russians. It was 6 130 a.m., a beautiful 
sunrise. Napoleon called it the sun of Austerlitz. 
The Russian generals made their soldiers say their 
prayers. A French cannon gave the signal to attack, 

30 



and at once the French batteries opened the battle 
with a discharge of more than lOO cannon. Writing 
this medical history of the Russian campaign I feel 
tempted to give a description of this most frightful, 
most cruel of all battles in the history of the world 
in which about 1,200 cannon without interruption dealt 
destruction and death; fracas and tumult of arms of 
all kinds, the harangue, the shouts of the commanders, 
the cries of rage, the lamentations of the wounded, all 
blended into one terrible din. Both armies charged 
with all the force that terror could develop. French 
and Russian soldiers not only fought like furious 
lions rivaling each other in ardor and courage, but 
they fought with wild joy, devoid of all human feel- 
ing, like maniacs ; they threw themselves on the enemy 
where he was most numerous, in a manner which 
manifested the highest degree of despair. The French 
had to gain the victory or succumb to misery; victory 
or death was their only thought. The Russians felt 
themselves humiliated by the approach of the French 
to their capital, and unshaken as a rock they resisted, 
defending themselves with grim determination. The 
battle. Napoleon promised, would be followed by peace 
and good winter quarters, but he was not as good a 
prophet as he was a good general. 

During the day the Westphalian corps was reduced 
to 1500 men. Napoleon ordered these to do guard- 
duty on the battlefield, transport the immense number 
of wounded to the hospitals, bury the dead and to 
remain while the army marched and stayed at Moscow. 
What the Westphalians could do for the wounded was 
very little, for everything was wanting. The hospital 
system was incomplete, miserable. It is true, the 
surgeons dressed, operated, amputated, during the 

31 



battle and during the days following, a great many 
wounded, but their number and their assistance was 
inadequate for the enormous task ; thousands remained 
without proper attendance and died. 

About one thousand Wuerttembergians were 
wounded in the battle of Borodino, and on many of 
these surgical operations had to be performed. Strange 
to say, the greatest operations on enfeebled wounded 
were more successful, a great many more were saved, 
than was generally the case under more favorable 
circumstances. Thus Surgeon General von Kohlreuter 
observed that in the Russian campaign amputation of 
an arm, for instance, gave much better chances, more 
recoveries, than in the Saxon and French campaigns, 
during which latter the soldiers were still robust, well 
nourished and well, even in abundance, supplied with 
everything. 

Means of transportation were lacking, for no 
wagons could be found in the deserted villages, and 
for this reason many whose wounds had been dressed 
had to be left to their fate — to die. Those but slightly 
wounded and those even who could crawl in some 
manner followed the troops, or went back at random 
to find their death in some miserable hut. Many 
sought refuge in nearby villages, sometimes miles 
away from the battle-field, there to fall into the hands 
of the Cossacks. 

The Westphalians remained on the battle-field sur- 
rounded by corpses and dying men, and they were 
forced to change position from time to time on account 
of the stench. The scenes of suffering and distress 
which the battle-field presented everywhere surpassed 
all description; the groans of the mutilated and dying 

followed the men on guard even at a distance, and 

32 



especially was this terrible during the night; it filled 
the heart with horror, von Borcke said that soldiers, at 
the request of some of the wounded in extreme agony, 
shot them dead and turned the face away while shoot- 
ing. And soon they considered this an act of pity. 
The officers even induced them to look for those who 
could not be saved, in order to relieve them from their 
suffering. When von Borcke was riding on horse- 
back over the battle-field on the 5th. day after the 
battle he saw wounded soldiers lying alongside the 
cadaver of a horse, gnawing at its flesh. During the 
night flames could be seen here and there on this field 
of death; these were fires built by wounded soldiers 
who had crawled together to protect themselves from 
the cold of the night and to roast a piece of horseflesh. 
On September 12th. the Westphalians moved to Mo- 
shaisk, which was deserted by all inhabitants, plun- 
dered, and half in ashes. While the battle raged sev- 
eral thousand wounded Russians had taken refuge 
there, who now, some alive and some dead, filled all the 
houses of the town. Burnt bodies were lying in the 
ruins of the houses which had been burnt, the entrance 
of these places being almost blockaded by cadavers. 
The only church, which stood on the public square 
in the middle of the town, contained several hundred 
wounded and as many corpses of men dead for a 
number of days. One glance into this infected church, 
a regular pest-house, made the blood curdle. Surgeons 
went inside and had the dead piled up on the square 
around the church; those still alive and suffering 
received the first aid, order was established and 
gradually a hospital arranged. Soldiers, Westphalians 
as well as Russian prisoners, were ordered to remove 
the corpses from the houses and the streets, and then 

33 



a recleansing of the whole town was necessary before 
it could be occupied by the troops. Although there 
was only one stone building — and a hundred wooden 
ones — it gave quarters to the whole Westphalian corps. 
Two regiments, one of Hussars, the other of the light 
Horse Guards, both together numbering not more 
than 300 men, had taken possession of a monastery 
in the neighborhood. Two regiments of cuirassiers 
had marched with the French to Moscow. 

In the quarters of Moshaisk the Westphalians 
enjoyed a time of rest, while the events in Moscow 
took place. The fate of those who had rem.ained in 
Moshaisk was not enviable, but what had been left 
of the town offered at least shelter during the cold 
nights of the approaching winter. This was a good 
deal after the fearful hardships, and it contributed 
much toward the recuperation of the soldiers. Con- 
valescents arrived daily, also such as had remained 
in the rear; a number of the slightly wounded were 
able for duty again, and in this manner the number 
of men increased to 4,500. Life in Moshaisk was a 
constant struggle for sustenance. There were no 
inhabitants, not even a single dog or any other living 
animal which the inhabitants had left behind. Some 
provisions found in houses or hidden somewhere 
benefited only those who had discovered them. The 
place upon the whole was a desert for the hungry. 
Small detachments had to be sent out for supplies. 
At first this system proved satisfactory, and with 
what had been brought in from the vicinity regular 
rations could be distributed. But the instinct of self- 
preservation had become so predominating that every 
one thought only of himself. Officers would send 
men clandestinely for their own sake, and when this 

34 



was discovered it ended in a fight and murder. Every- 
one was anxious to provide for himself individually, 
to be prepared for the coming winter. Sutlers and 
speculators went to Moscow to take advantage of the 
general pillage, to procure luxuries, like cofifee, sugar, 
tea, wine, delicacies of all description. Notwithstand- 
ing the great conflagration at Moscow immense stores 
of all these things had come into the hands of the 
French, and this had an influence on Moshaisk, forty 
miles away from the metropolis, von Borke was 
fortunate enough to secure a supply of coffee, tea, 
and sugar, suflicient not only for himself, but also for 
some friends, and lasting even for some weeks on the 
retreat. But the supply of meat, and especially bread, 
was inadequate for the mass of soldiers. Ten days 
had elapsed when the situation of those in Moshaisk 
became grave again, namely, when communication 
with Moscow was cut off. Orderlies did not arrive, 
no more convalescents came, news could not be had, 
details of soldiers sent out for supplies were killed or 
taken prisoner by Cossacks. The retreat of the 
French army, the last act of the great drama, com- 
menced. 

While the Westphalians guarded the battle-field the 
army marched to Moscow, exhausted, starving, finding 
new sufferings every day. On the road from Mo- 
shaisk to Moscow they encountered frightful condi- 
tions in the villages which were filled with wounded 
Russians. These unfortunates, abandoned to cruel 
privations, dying as much from starvation as from 
their wounds, excited pity. The water even was 
scarce, and when a source was discovered it was 
generally polluted, soiled with all sorts of filth, infected 
by cadavers; but all this did not prevent the soldiers 



from drinking it with great avidity, and they fought 
among themselves to approach it. All these details 
have to be known before studying typhus in the grand 
army. 



The description of diseases given by the physicians 
who lived a century ago is for us unsatisfactory; we 
cannot understand what they meant by their vague 
designating of hepatitis, fibrous enteritis, diarrhoea 
and dysentery, peripneumonia, remittent and inter- 
mittent gastric fever, protracted nervous fever, typhus 
and synochus; there is no distinction made in any of 
the writings of that period between abdominal and 
exanthematic typhus. 

However, before long physicians will discard much 
from our present medical onomatology that is 
ridiculous, absurd, incorrect, in short, unscientific, as, 
for instance, the designation typhoid fever. 

Ebstein has pointed out all that is obscure to us in 
the reports of the physicians of the Russian campaign; 
for instance, that we cannot distinguish what is meant 
by the different forms of fever. According to the 
views of those times fever was itself a disease per se ; 
when reaction was predominating it was called 
synocha, typhus when weakness was the feature, and 
in case of a combination of synocha and typhus it was 
called synochus, a form in which there was at first an 
inflammatory and later on a typhoid stage, but which 
form could not be distinguished exactly from typhus. 
From all the descriptions in the reports of the Russian 
campaign it can be deduced that many of the cases 
enumerated were of exanthematic typhus, notwith- 
standing that the symptomatology given is very incom- 
plete, not to speak of the pathological anatomy. The 

36 



only writer who has described necropsies is von 
Scherer. Some of the physicians speak only of the 
sick and the diseases, as Bourgeois, who says that on 
the march to Russia during the sultry weather the 
many cadavers of horses putrefied rapidly, filling the 
air with miasms, and that this caused much disease; 
further, in describing the retreat he only says that the 
army was daily reduced in consequence of the con- 
stant fighting, the privations and diseases, without 
enumerating which diseases were prevailing; only in 
a note attached to his booklet he mentions that the 
most frequent of the ravaging diseases of that time 
and during the Russian campaign in general was 
typhus, and there can be no doubt it was petechial or 
exanthematic typhus, for which the English literature 
has the vague name typhus fever. 

Very interesting are the historical data given by 
Ebstein: "As is well known, the fourth and most 
severe typhus period of the eighteenth century began 
with the wars of the French revolution and ended only 
during the second decade of the nineteenth century 
with the downfall of the Napoleonic empire and the 
restoration of peace in Germany." During the 
Russian campaign the conditions for spreading the 
disease were certainly the most favorable imaginable. 

Krantz, whom I shall quote later on, has described 
the ophthalmy prevaiHng in York's corps as being of a 
mild character. 

Quite different forms reigned among the soldiers 
on their retreat from Moscow. 

The description of the death from frost given by 
von Scherer is similar to that given by Bourgeois. 
The men staggered as if drunk, their faces were red 
and swollen, it looked as if all their blood had risen 

37 



into their head. Powerless they dropped, as if 
paralyzed, the arms were hanging down, the musket 
fell out of their hands. The moment they lost their 
strength tears came to their eyes, repeatedly they 
arose, apparently deprived of their senses, and stared 
shy and terror-stricken at their surroundings. The 
physiognomy, the spasmodic contractions of the 
muscles of the face, manifested the cruel agony which 
they suffered. The eyes were very red, and drops 
of blood trickled from the conjunctiva. Without 
exaggeration it could be said of these unfortunates 
that they shed bloody tears. These severe forms of 
ophthalmy caused by extreme cold would have ended 
in gangraene of the affected parts if death had not 
relieved the misery of these unfortunates. 

But Bourgeois describes another very severe form 
of ophthalmy among the soldiers which caused total 
blindness. It appeared when the army on its retreat 
was in the vicinity of Orscha, attacked many soldiers 
and resembled the ophthalmy which was prevailing in 
Egypt ; there it was caused by the heated sand reflect- 
ing powerfully the rays of the sun ; here, by the glar- 
ing white snow likewise reflecting the rays of the sun. 
Bourgeois considers as predisposing moments the 
smoke of the camp-fires, the want of sleep, the march- 
ing during the night, and describes the affection as 
follows : The conjunctiva became dark red, swelled 
together with the eyelids; there was a greatly exag- 
gerated lachrymal secretion associated with severe 
pain; the eyes were constantly wet, the photophobia 
reached such a degree that the men became totally 
bhnd, suffered most excruciating pain and fell on the 
road. 

Ebstein availed himself of the publications of 

38 



J. L. R. de Kerckhove, Rene Bourgeois, J. Lemazurier, 
and Joh. von Scherer, and the manuscript of Harnier 
from which writings he collected all that refers to 
the diseases of the grand army. It may not be out of 
place to quote the interesting writings of de Kerck- 
hove concerning the army physicians and Napoleon 
and his soldiers : 

de Kerckhove left Mayence on March 6th., 1812, 
attached to the headquarters of the 3rd. corps, com- 
manded by Ney; at Thorn he joined those braves with 
whom he entered Moscow on September 14th. and with 
whom he left on October 19th. When he returned to 
Berlin in the beginning of February, 1813, the 3rd. 
corps was discharged. He writes : The army was not 
only the most beautiful, but there was none which 
included so many brave warriors, more heroes. How 
many parents have cried over the loss of their children 
tenderly raised by them, how many sons, the only hope 
and support of their father and mother, have perished, 
how many bonds of friendship have been severed, 
how many couples have been separated forever, how 
many unfortunate ones drawn into misery? An army 
extinguished by hunger and cold ! 

Giving credit to the physicians and surgeons who 
took part in that unfortunate expedition he says: 
With what noble zeal they tried to do their duties. 
The horror of the privations, the severity of the 
climate and fatigues and the want of eatables and 
medicines which characterized the hospitals and 
ambulances in Russia, have not discouraged the phy- 
sicians so far as to become indifferent to the terrible 
fate reserved for the sick. On the contrary, far from 
allowing themselves to relax, they have doubled their 
activity to ameliorate sufferings. We have seen physi- 

39 



cians in the midst of the carnage and the terror of the 
battles extend their care and bring consolation; we 
have seen them sacrificing day and night in hospital 
service, succumbing to murderous epidemics; in one 
word, despising all danger when it was a question of 
relieving the sufferings of the warriors, immaterial 
whether Russian or French. We can speak of many 
sick or wounded left in ambulances or hospitals in 
want of food and medicines, many of such unfor- 
tunates deprived of everything, dragging themselves 
under the ruins of cities or villages, who found help 
from honest physicians. 



40 



THE GRAND ARMY IN MOSCOW 

Three fifths of the houses and one half of the 
churches were destroyed. The citizens had burned 
their capital. Before this catastrophe of 1812 Mos- 
cow was an aristocratic city. According to old usage, 
the Russian nobility spent the winter there, they came 
from their country seats with hundreds of slaves and 
servants and many horses ; their palaces in the city 
were surrounded by parks and lakes, and many build- 
ings were erected on the grounds, as lodgings for the 
servants and slaves, stables, magazines. The number 
of servants was great, many of them serving for no 
other purpose than to increase the number, and this 
calling was part of the luxury of the noblemen. The 
house of the seigneur was sometimes of brick, rarely 
of stone, generally of wood, all were covered with 
copper plates or with iron, painted red or green. The 
magazines were mostly stone buildings, on account of 
the danger of fire. At that tim.e the Russian nobility 
had not yet accustomed itself to consider St. Peters- 
burg the capital, they were obstinate in the determina- 
tion to come every winter to hold court in the mother 
of Russian cities. The conflagration of 1812 broke 
this tradition. The nobility, not willing or not being 
able to rebuild their houses, rented the ground to 
citizens, and industry, prodigiously developing since 

then, has taken possession of Moscow. This is how 

41 



the city has lost its floating population of noblemen 
and serfs, which amounted to lOO thousand souls, and 
how the aristocratic city has become an industrial one. 
It is a new city, but the fire of 1812, from the ashes 
of which it has risen, has left impressions on the monu- 
ments. Step by step in the Kremlin and in the city 
proper are found souvenirs of the patriotic war. You 
enter the Kremlin which Napoleon tried to explode, 
and which has been restored, you visit there the church 
of the Annunciation, and you will be told that the 
French soldiers had stabled their horses on the pave- 
ment of agate; you visit the church of the Assumption 
and you will be shown the treasures which, on the 
approach of the French, had been taken to places of 
safety ; you raise your eye to the summit of the tower 
of Ivan and you learn that the cross had been removed 
by the invaders and found in the baggage of the Grand 
Army. The door of St. Nicholas has an inscription 
recalling the miracle by which this door was saved in 
1812. The tower surmounting it was split by an ex- 
plosion from above downward, but the fissure ended 
at the very point where the icon is found; the ex- 
plosion of 500 pounds of powder did not break even 
the glass which covers the image or the crystal of the 
lamp which burns before it. Along the walls of the 
arsenal are the cannon taken from the enemy, and in 
the arsenal are other trophies, including the camp-bed 
of Napoleon. 

Russian accounts from eye-witnesses of the con- 
flagration are few — in fact, there exists none in writ- 
ing. People who witnessed the catastrophe could not 
write. What we possess are collections from verbal 
accounts given by servants, serfs, who had told the 
events to their masters. Nobody of distinction had 

42 



remained in Moscow, none of the nobility, the clergy, 
the merchants. The persons from whom the following 
accounts are given were the nun Antonine, a former 
slave of the Syraxine family, the little peddler Andreas 
Alexieef, a woman, Alexandra Alexievna Nazarot, an 
old slave of the family Soimonof by the name of 
Basilli Ermolaevitch, the wife of a pope, Maria 
Stepanova, the wife of another pope, Helene Alex- 
ievna. A Russian lady has collected what she had 
learned from these humble people, the eye-witnesses 
of the catastrophe, and published it, pseudonym, in 
some Russian journal. All these people had minutely 
narrated their experiences to her at great length, not 
omitting any detail which concerned themselves or 
circumstances which caused their surprise, and they 
all gave the dates, the hours which they had tenaciously 
kept in their memory for sixty years, for it was in the 
year 1872 when the Russian lady interrogated them. 
Some had retained from those days of terror such 
vivid impressions that a conflagration or the sight of 
a soldier's casque would cause them palpitation of the 
heart. There is much repetition in their narrations, 
for all had seen the sam.e: the invasion, the enemy, 
the fire kindled by their own people, the misery, the 
dearth, the pillage. There exist documents of the 
events in Moscow of 1812, the souvenirs of Count 
de Toll, the apology of Rostopchine, which we shall 
come to in another chapter, the recitals of Domerque, 
of Wolzogen, of Segur, but these reminiscences of 
people in Moscow are the only ones from persons who 
actually suffered by the catastrophe, and they are in 
their way as valuable as the writings of our two 
writers, von Scherer and von Borcke. These plain 
people know nothing of the days of Erfurt, nothing 

43 



of the continental blocus, nothing of the withdrawal 
of Alexander from the French Alliance; the bearers 
of the toulloupes (sheepskin furs) in the streets of 
Moscow of the beginning of 1812 knew nothing of the 
confederation of the Rhine; all they knew of Bona- 
parte was that he had often beaten the Germans, and 
that on his account they had to pay more for sugar 
and coffee. To them the great comet of 181 1 was the 
first announcement of coming great events. Let us 
see the reflections which the comet inspired in the 
abbess of the Devitchi convent and the nun Antonine, 
and this will give us an idea of the mental condition 
of the latter, one of the narrators. "One evening," 
she relates, ''we were at service in St. John's church, 
when all of a sudden I noticed on the horizon a gerbe 
of resplendent flames. I cried out and dropped my 
lantern. Mother abbess came to me to learn what 
had caused my fright, and when she also had seen the 
meteor she contemplated a long time. I asked, Ma- 
touchka, what star is this? She answered this is no 
star, this is a comet. I asked again what is a comet? 
I never had heard that word. The mother then 
explained to me that this was a sign from heaven 
which God had sent to foretell great misfortune. 
Every evening this comet was seen, and we asked 
ourselves what calamity this one might bring us. In 
the cells of the convent, in the shops of the city, the 
news, travelling as the crow flies, was heard that 
Bonaparte was leading against Russia an immense 
army, the like of which the world had never seen. 
Only the veterans of the battles of Austerlitz, Eylau, 
and Friedland could give some information, some 
details of the character of the invader. The direction 
which Napoleon took on his march left no doubt to 



any one that he would appear in MoscoW. In order 
to raise the courage which was sinking they had the 
miraculous image of the Virgin conductrice brought 
from Smolensk, which place was to be visited by the 
French. This icon was exposed in the cathedral of St. 
Michael the Archangel, for veneration by the people. 
The abbess of our convent, who was from Smolensk, 
had a special devotion for this image, she went with 
all the nuns to salute the Protatrix. At St. Michael 
the Archangel there was a great crowd so that one 
hardly could stand, especially were there many women, 
all crying. When we, the nuns, began to push, to get 
near the image, one after the other in a line endlessly 
long, they looked upon us with impatience. One wo- 
man said: 'These soutanes should make room for us, 
it is not their husbands, it is our husbands', our sons' 
heads, which will be exposed to the guns.' " 

Rostopchine tried his best to keep the population at 
peace by his original proclamations, which were pasted 
on all the walls and distributed broadcast. After 
Borodino he urged the people to take up arms, and he 
promised to be at the head of the men to fight a 
supreme battle on the Three Mountains. Meanwhile 
he worked to save the treasures of the church, the 
archives, the collections of precious objects in the 
government palaces. From the arsenal he armed the 
people. A tribune was erected from which the metro- 
politan addressed the multitude and made them kneel 
down to receive his blessing. Rostopchine stood 
behind the metropolitan and came forward after the 
priest had finished his allocution, saying that he had 
come to announce a great favor of his majesty. As a 
proof that they should not be delivered unarmed to 
the enemy, his majesty permitted them to pillage the 

45 



arsenal, and the people shouted: "Thanks, may God 
give to the Tzar many years to live !" This was a 
very wise idea of Rostopchine to have the arsenal 
emptied, a feat which he could not have accomplished 
in time in any other way. The pillage lasted several 
days and went on in good order. 



The French had entered Moscow. The first word 
of Napoleon to Mortier, whom he had named governor 
of Moscow, was "no pillage !" But this point of honor 
had to be abandoned. The lOO thousand men who 
had entered were troops of the elite, but they came 
starving at the end of their adventurous expedition. 
During the first days they walked the streets in search 
of a piece of bread and a little wine. But Httle had 
been left in the cellars of the abandoned houses and 
in the basements of the little shops, and with the con- 
flagration there was almost nothing to be found. The 
Grand Army was starving as much almost as on the 
march. Dogs which had returned in considerable 
numbers to lament on the ruins of the houses of their 
masters were looked upon as precious venison. The 
uniforms were already in rags, and the Russian cli- 
mate made itself felt. These poor soldiers, poorly 
clad, dying from starvation, were begging for a piece 
of bread, for linen or sheepskin, and, above all, for 
shoes. There was no arrangement for the distribu- 
tion of rations.; they had to take from wherever they 
could, or perish. 

Napoleon established himself in the Kremlin, the 
generals in the mansions of the noblemen, the soldiers 
in the taverns or private houses until the fire dislodged 
them. Napoleon, with a part of his staff, was obliged 
to seek refuge in the park Petrovski, the commanders 

46 



took quarters wherever they could, the soldiers dis- 
persed themselves among the ruins. Supervision had 
become an impossibility. The men, left to themselves, 
naturally lost all discipline under these circumstances 
of deception and under so many provocations among a 
hostile population. Notwithstanding all these con- 
ditions, they behaved well in general and to a great 
extent showed self-control and humanity toward the 
conquered. The example of pillage had been set by 
the Russians themselves. Koutouzof had commanded 
the destruction of the mansions. The slaves burned 
the palaces of their masters. 

All eye-witnesses speak of the extreme destitution 
of the soldiers in regard to clothing after one month's 
stay in Moscow. Already at this time, even before the 
most terrible and final trials of the retreat which 
awaited them, one had to consider them lost. When 
they first took to woman's clothes or shoes or hats it 
was considered an amusement, a joke, but very soon a 
mantilla, a soutane, a veil became a precious object 
and nobody laughed at it when frozen members were 
wrapped in these garments. The greatest calamity 
was the want of shoes. Some soldiers followed 
women simply for the purpose of taking their shoes 
from them. A special chapter of horrors could be 
written on the sufferings of the soldiers on the retreat 
over ice and snow fields on account of the miserable 
supply of shoes. 

At first Napoleon reviewed the regiments near the 
ponds of the Kremlin, and at the first reviews the 
troops marched proudly, briskly, with firm step, but 
soon they began to fail with astonishing rapidity. 
They answered the roll of the drums calling them 
together, clad in dirty rags and with torn shoes, in 

47 



fast diminishing numbers. During the last weeks of 
their stay in Moscow many had reached the last stage 
of misery, after having wandered through the streets 
looking for a little bit of nourishment, dressed up as 
for a carnival, but without desire to dance, as one 
remarked in grim humor. 

These were the men whose destination had brought 
them many hundreds of miles from home to the semi- 
Asiatic capital of the Ivans, who had been drinking in 
the glory and the joy of warriors, and who now died 
from hunger and cold, with their laurels still intact. 
Thanks to the authorized military requisitions and the 
excesses of the stragglers of the Grand Army, a desert 
had been made of the city before Napoleon had begun 
his retreat. No more cattle, no provisions, and the 
inhabitants gone, camping with wife and children in 
the deepest parts of the forests. Those who had 
remained or returned to the villages, organized against 
marauders whom they received v/ith pitchforks or 
rifles, and these peasants gave no quarter. 

"The enemy appeared nearly every day in our village 
(Bogorodsic)," says Maria Stepanova, the wife of a 
pope, "and as soon as they were perceived all men took 
up arms; our cossacks charged them with their long 
sabers or shot them with their pistols, and behind the 
cossacks were running the peasants, some with axes, 
some with pitchforks. After every excursion they 
brought ten or more prisoners which they drowned in 
the Protka which runs near the village, or they fusil- 
laded them on the prairie. The unfortunates passed 
our windows, my mother and I did not know where to 
hide ourselves in order not to hear their cries and the 
report of the firearms. My poor husband, Ivan 

Demitovitch, became quite pale, the fever took him, 

48 



his teeth cliattered, he was so compassionate! One 
(lay tlie cossacks brought some prisoners and locked 
them up in a cart-house built of stone. They are too 
few, they said, it is not worth while to take any trouble 
about them now ; w4th the next lot which we shall take 
we will shoot or drown them together. This cart- 
house had a window with bars. Peasants came to 
look at the prisoners and gave them bread and boiled 
eggs ; they did not want to see them starving while 
awaiting death. One day when I brought them eat- 
ables I saw at the window a young soldier — so young ! 
His forehead was pressed against the bars, tears in 
his eyes, and tears running down his cheeks. I myself 
began to cry, and even to-day my heart aches when I 
think of him. I passed lepecheks through the bars and 
went away without looking behind me. At that time 
came an order from the government that no more 
prisoners should be killed but sent to Kalouga. How 
we were contented!" 

Many savageries have been committed by the low 
class of Russians who had remained in Moscow. This 
is not surprising because these were of the most 
depraved of the population, including especially many 
criminals who had been set free to pillage and burn 
the city. "A little while before the French entered," 
tells the serf Soimonof, "the order had been given to 
empty all the vodka (whiskey) from the distilleries 
of the crown into the street; the liquor was running 
in rivulets, and the rabble drank until they were sense- 
lessly drunk, they had even licked the stones and the 
wooden pavement. Shouting and fighting naturally 
followed." 

The really good people of Moscow had given proofs 
of high moral qualities, worthy of admiration, under 

49 



the sad circumstances. Poor moujiks who had learned 
of the defeat of the Russians at Borodino said their 
place was no longer in a city which was to be dese- 
crated by the presence of the enemy, and, leaving their 
huts to be burned down, their miserable belongings to 
be pillaged, they went on the highways at the mercy 
of God, disposed to march as long as their eyes could 
see before them. Others, running before the flames, 
carried their aged and sick on their shoulders, showing 
but one sentiment in their complete ruin, namely, 
absolute resignation to the will of God, 

Some readers may say that the foregoing chapter 
does not give the medical history of the campaign. To 
these I wish to reply that it is impossible to understand 
the medical history without knowing the general con- 
ditions of the Grand Army, which were the cause of 
the death of hundreds of thousands of soldiers from 
cold and starvation. 



50 



ROSTOPGHINE 

The conflagration of Moscow in 1812 and the fall 
of the French empire are two facts which cannot be 
separated, but to the name of Moscow is attached 
another name, that of Rostopchine. Count Fedor 
Wassiljavitch Rostopchine is connected with one of the 
greatest events in universal history. He caused a crisis 
which decided the fate of Russia and arrested the 
march of ascending France by giving the death blow 
to Napoleon. The latter, in admitting that Rostop- 
chine was the author of his ruin, meant him when he 
said, "one man less, and I would have been master of 
the world." 

Until the year 1876 there existed a mystery around 
this man and his deed, a mystery which was deepened 
by Rostopchine himself when he pubHshed in 1823 a 
pamphlet entitled "The Truth about the Conflagration 
of Moscow," which did not give the truth but was a 
mystification. 

Alexander Popof , a Russian Counselor of State, 
who made a special study of the history of the Russian 
campaign of Napoleon, has explored the archives of 
St. Petersburg, and his researches, the result of which 
he published in Russian in the year 1876, have brought 
to light all diplomacy had concealed about the events 
which led to the destruction of the Russian capital. 

51 



What document, one might ask, could be more 
precious than the memoirs of Rostopchine, the gov- 
ernor of Moscow in 1812? What good fortune for 
the historian ! In 1872 Count Anatole de Segur, grand- 
son of Rostopchine, the author of a biography of the 
latter, wrote, concerning these memoirs, that they 
were seized, together with all the papers of his grand- 
father, by order of the Emperor Nicholas, immediately 
after Rostopchine's death in the year 1826, and were 
locked up in the archives of the Imperial Chancellor 
where they would remain, perhaps forever. For- 
tunately, one of the daughters of Count Rostopchine 
had taken a copy of some passages of this precious 
manuscript. These passages were published in 1864 
by a son of Rostopchine, Count Alexis R., in a book 
entitled "Materiaux en grande partie inedits, pour la 
biographic future du Comte Rostopchine," which is of 
a rare bibliographic value, for only twelve copies were 
printed. These same fragments, three in number, 
were reproduced by Count Anatole de Segur in the 
biography of his ancestor, of which we have spoken. 
Aside from these extracts nothing was known of 
Rostopchine's memoirs until Popof had made his 
researches. To verify the memoirs Popof quotes 
long passages which he compares carefully with other 
documents of that epoch. This book on the whole is 
a continuous commentary upon the memoirs of Ros- 
topchine. 

Rostopchine, having been made governor of Mos- 
cow in March, 1812, wrote to the Tzar : "Your empire 
has two strongholds, its immensity and its climate. It 
has these 16,000,000 men who profess the same creed, 
speak the same language, and whose chin has never 
been touched by a razor. The long beards are the 

52 



power of Russia, and the blood of your soldiers will 
be a seed of heroes. If unfortunate circumstances 
should force you to retreat before the invader, the 
Russian emperor will always be terrible in Moscow, 
formidable in Kazan, invincible at Tobolsk." This 
letter was dated June 11/23, 1812. 

At that time Rostopchine was 47 years of age, in 
perfect health and had developed a most extraordinary 
activity, something which was not known of his 
predecessors ; the governors of Moscow before his 
time had been old and decrepit. He understood the 
character of the Russian people and made himself 
popular at once, and adored, because he made himself 
accessible to everybody. He himself describes how he 
went to work : I announced that every day from 1 1 to 
noon everybody had access to me, and those who had 
something important to communicate would be re- 
ceived at any hour during the day. On the day of my 
taking charge I had prayers said and candles lighted 
before such miraculous pictures as enjoyed the highest 
popular veneration. I studied to show an extraor- 
dinary politeness to all who had dealings with me; I 
courted the old wom^en, the babblers and the pious, 
especially the latter. I resorted to all means to make 
myself agreeable ; I had the coffins raised which served 
as signs to the undertakers and the inscriptions pasted 
on the church doors. It took me two days to pull the 
wool over their eyes (pour jeter la poudre aux yeux) 
and to persuade the greater part of the inhabitants that 
I was indefatigable and that I was everywhere. I 
succeeded in giving this idea by appearing on the same 
morning at different places, far apart from each other, 
leaving traces everywhere of my justice and severity; 
thus on the first day I had arrested an officer of the 



military hospital whose duty it was to oversee the 
distribution of the soup, but who had not been present 
when it was time for dinner. I rendered justice to a 
peasant who had bought 30 pounds of salt but received 
only 25 ; I gave the order to imprison an employee 
who had not done his duty ; I went everywhere, spoke 
to everyone and learned many things which afterward 
were useful to me. After having tired to death two 
pairs of horses I came home at 8 o'clock, changed my 
civilian costume for the military uniform and made 
myself ready to commence my official work." Thus 
Rostopchine took the Moscovitians by their foibles, 
played the role of Haroun-al-Raschid, played comedy ; 
he even employed agents to carry the news of the 
town to him, to canvass war news and to excite en- 
thusiasm in the cafes and in all kinds of resorts of the 
common people. 

When the emperor notified him one day of his 
coming visit to the capital and transmitted a proclama- 
tion in which he announced to his people the danger of 
the country, Rostopchine developed great activity. "I 
went to work," he writes in his memoirs, "was on my 
feet day and night, held meetings, saw many people, 
had printed along with the imperial proclamation a 
bulletin worded after my own fashion, and the next 
morning the people of Moscow on rising learned of the 
coming of the sovereign. The nobility felt flattered 
on account of the confidence which the emperor 
placed in them, and became inspired with a noble zeal, 
the merchants were ready to give money, only the com- 
mon people apparently remained indifferent, because 
they did not believe it possible that the enemy could 
enter Moscow." The longbeards repeated incessantly : 

54 



"Napoleon cannot conquer us, he would have to 
exterminate us all." 

But the streets became crowded with people, the 
stores were closed, every one went first to the churches 
to pray for the Tzar, and from there to the gate of 
Dragomilof to salute the imperial procession upon its 
arrival. The enthusiasm ran so high that the idea was 
conceived to unhitch the horses from his coach and 
carry him in his carriage. This, as Rostopchine tells 
us, was the intention not only of the common people but 
of many distinguished ones also, even of such as wore 
decorations. The emperor, to avoid such exaggerated 
manifestations, was obliged to arrange for his entry 
during the night. On the next morning when the Tzar, 
according to the old custom, showed himself to his 
people on the red stairs, the hurrahs, the shouts of the 
multitude drowned the sounds of the bells of the forty 
times forty churches which were ringing in the city. 
At every step, thousands of hands tried to touch the 
limbs of the sovereign or the flap of his uniform which 
they kissed and wet with their tears. 

'T learned during the night," writes Rostopchine, 
"and it was confirmed in the morning, that there were 
some persons who had united to ask the emperor how 
many troops we had, how many the enemy, and what 
were the means of defence. This would have been a 
bold and, under the present circumstances, a dangerous 
undertaking, although I hardly feared that these people 
would venture to do so, because they were of those 
who are brave in private and poltroons in public. 

At any rate, I had said repeatedly and before every- 
body that I hoped to offer the emperor the spectacle of 
an assembly of a faithful and respectful nobility, and 
that I should be in despair if some malevolent person 

55 



should permit himself to create disorder and forget the 
presence of the sovereign. I promised that any one 
who would do this might be sure of being taken in 
hand and sent on a long journey before he would have 
finished his harangue. 

To give more weight to my words I had stationed, 
not far from the palace, two telegues (two-wheeled 
carts) hitched up with mail horses and two police 
officers in road uniform promenading before them. If 
some curious person should ask them for whom these 
telegues were ready, they had orders to answer, 'for 
those who will be sent to Siberia.' 

These answers and the news of the telegues soon 
spread among the assembly; the bawlers understood 
and behaved." 

The nobility of Riazen had sent a deputation to the 
emperor to offer him 60 thousand men, armed and 
equipped. Balachef, the minister of police, received 
this deputation scornfully and ordered them to leave 
Moscow at once. 

There were other offers which were not surprising 
at that period when the mass of the people consisted 
of serfs, but which appear strange to us. "Many of 
my acquaintances," writes Kamarovski, "said that they 
would give their musicians, others the actors of their 
theaters, others their hunters, as it was easier to make 
soldiers of them than of their peasants." 

The Russian noblemen in their love for liberty 
sacrificed their slaves. Rostopchine, together with 
many aristocrats, was not entirely at ease. It was 
something anomalous to call to arms for the sake of 
liberty a nation of serfs who vividly felt the injustice 
of their situation ; besides, it had been heard that some 

56 



moujiks said, "Bonapar.te comes to bring us liberty, 
we do not want anj^ more seigneurs." 

The Russian people in their generahty, however, did 
not justify the fears of the aristocrats. Their religious 
fanaticism, nourished by the priests, their passionate 
devotion to the Tzar, made them forget their own, just 
complaints. 

In Moscow business was at a standstill, the ordinary 
course of things v/as likewise suspended, the popula- 
tion lived in the streets, forming a nervous crowd, 
subject to excitement and terror. The question was to 
keep them in respectfulness. 

Here Rostopchine's inborn talent as tribune and 
publicist, as comedian and tragedian, showed itself to 
perfection. He gave a free rein to his imagination in 
his placards, in which he affected the proverbial 
language of the moujik, made himself a peasant, more 
than a peasant, in his eccentric style, to excite patriot- 
ism. He published pamphlets against the French, and 
the coarser his language the more effect it had on the 
masses. 

"At this time," he writes, "I understood the neces- 
sity of acting on the mind of the people to arouse 
them so that they should prepare themselves for all 
the sacrifices, for the sake of the country. Every day 
I disseminated stories and caricatures, which repre- 
sented the French as dwarfs in rags, poorly armed, 
not heavier than a gerbe which one could lift with a 
pitchfork." 

For curiosity's sake, as an example of his style of 
fiction by which he fascinated the Russian peasantry 
may serve the translation of one of the stories: 
"Korniouchka Tchikhirine, an inhabitant of Moscow, 
a veteran, having been drinking a little more than usual, 

57 



hears that Bonaparte is coming to Moscow, he becomes 
angry, scolds in coarse terms all Frenchmen, comes 
out of the liquor store and under the eagle with the 
two heads (the sign that the place is the crown's) he 
shouts : What, he will come to us ! But you are wel- 
come! For Christmas or carnival you are invited. 
The girls await you with knots in their handkerchiefs, 
your head will swell. You will do well to dress as the 
devil; we shall say a prayer, and you will disappear 
when the cock crows. Do better, remain at home, play 
hide and seek or blind man's buff. Enough of such 
farces! don't you see that your soldiers are cripples, 
dandies? They have no touloupes, no mittens, no 
onoutchi (wrappings around the legs in place of 
stockings). How will they adapt themselves to 
Russian habits ? The cabbage will make them bloated, 
the gruel will make them sick, and those who survive 
the winter will perish by the frost at Epiphany. So it 
is, yes. At our house doors they will shiver, in the 
vestibule they will stand with chattering teeth; in the 
room they will suffocate, on the stove they will be 
roasted. But what is the use of speaking? As often 
as the pitcher goes to the well, as often their head will 
be broken. Charles of Sweden was another imprudent 
one like you, of pure royal blood, he has gone to 
Poltava, he has not returned. Other rabbits than you 
Frenchmen were the Poles, the Tartars, the Swedes; 
our forefathers, however, have dealt with them so that 
one can yet see the tomb-hills around Moscow, as 
numerous as mushrooms, and under these mushrooms 
rest their bones. Ah! our holy mother Moscow, it 
is not a city, it is an empire. You have left at home 
only the blind and the lame, the old women and the 
little children. Your size is not big enough to match 

58 



the Germans ; they will at the first blow throw you on 
your back (this remark is wonderfully prophetic). 
And Russia, do you know what that is, you 
cracked head? Six hundred thousand longbeards 
have been enlisted, besides 300 thousand soldiers with 
bare chins, and 200 thousand veterans. All these are 
heroes; they believe in one God, obey one Tzar, make 
the sign with one cross, these are all brethren. And if 
it pleases our father and Tzar, Alexander Pavlovitch, 
he has to say only one word : To arms, Christians ! 
And you will see them rising. And even if you should 
beat the vanguard ? Take your ease ! the others will 
give you such a chase that the memory of it will 
remain in all eternity. To come to us ! well then ! Not 
only the tower of Ivan the Great, but also the hill of 
Prosternations will remain invisible to you even in 
your dream. We shall rely on white Russia and we 
shall bury you in Poland. As one makes his bed so 
one sleeps. On this account reflect, do not proceed, 
do not start the dance. Turn about face, go home, and 
from generation to generation remember what it is, the 
Russian nation. "Having said all, Tchikhirine went on, 
briskly singing, and the people who saw him go said 
wherever he came, that is well spoken, it is the truth !" 

Rostopchine knew very well how to make Tchik- 
hirine speak when he had been drinking more than 
usual, he knew how to make the saints speak, he in- 
vented pious legends which were not guaranteed by the 
Holy Synod and not found in the Lives of the Saints. 

"After the battle of Borodino," said he in his 
memoirs, *T ceased to have recourse to little means to 
distract the people and occupy their attention. It 
required an extraordinary effort of the imagination to 
invent something that would, excite the people. The 

59 



most ingenious attempts do not always succeed, while 
the clumsy ones take a surprising effect. Among those 
of the latter kind there was a story after my fashion 
of which 5 thousand copies at one kopek a copy were 
sold in one day." 

The population of Moscow was in a peculiar moral 
condition. They were most superstitious, believed the 
most improbable reports and saw signs from heaven 
of the downfall of Napoleon. 

"In the city," writes Rostopchine, ''rumors were 
current of visions, of voices which had been heard in 
the graveyards. Passages from the Apocalypsis were 
quoted referring to Napoleon's fall." 

But Rostopchine himself, was he free from cre- 
dulity? A German by the name of Leppich con- 
structed, secretly, in one of the gardens of Moscow, a 
balloon by means of which the French army should 
be covered with fire, and some historians say that 
Rostopchine was one of the most enthusiastic admirers 
of Leppich. 

As it may be interesting to learn how he was ahead 
of his time in regard to ideas about military balloons 
let us give the full statement of Popof on this matter. 

In 1 812 in Moscow it was exactly as in 1870 in 
Paris ; everybody built hopes on the military airship, 
and expected that by means of a Greek fire from a 
balloon the whole army of the enemy would be annihi- 
lated. Rostopchine, in a letter dater May 7/19, 1812, 
gave an account to Emperor Alexander of the precau- 
tions he had taken that the wonderful secret of the 
construction of the airship by Leppich should not be 
revealed. He took the precaution not to employ any 
workmen from Moscow. He had already given Lep- 
pich 120 thousand rubles to buy material. , 

60 



"To-morrow," he writes, "under the pretext of 
dining with some one living in his vicinity I shall go 
to Leppich and shall remain with him for a long time ; 
it will be a feast to me to become more closely con- 
nected with a man whose invention will render military 
art superfluous, free mankind of its internal destroyer, 
make of you the arbiter of kings and empires and the 
benefactor of mankind." 

In another letter to the emperor, dated June 11/23, 
1812, he writes, "I have seen Leppich; he is a very 
able man and an excellent m.echanician. He has 
removed all my doubts in regard to the contrivances 
which set the wings of his machine in motion (indeed 
an infernal construction) and which consequently 
might do still more harm to humanity than Napoleon 
himself. 

I am in doubt about one point which I submit to the 
judgment of your majesty: when the machine will be 
ready Leppich proposes to embark on it to fly as far as 
Wilna. Can we trust him so completely as not to 
think of treason on his part?" Three weeks later 
he wrote to the emperor "I am fully convinced of 
success. I have taken quite a liking to Leppich who 
is also very much attached to me; his machine I love 
like my own child. Leppich suggests that I should 
make an air voyage with him, but I cannot decide 
about this without the authorization of your majesty." 

On September nth., four days before the evacua- 
tion, the fate of Moscow^ was decided. On that day at 
10 o'clock in the forenoon the following conversation 
took place in the house of Rostopchine between him 
and Glinka. 

"Your excellency," said Glinka, "I have sent my 
family away." 

61 



"I have already done the same," answered the count, 
and tears were in his eyes. 

"Now%" added he, "Serge Nicholaevitch, let us speak 
like two true friends of our country. In your opinion, 
what will happen if Moscow is abandoned?" 

"Your excellency knows what I have dared to say 
on the 15/27 July in the assembly of the nobility; but 
tell me in all frankness, count, how shall Moscow be 
delivered, with blood, or without blood (s kroviou ili 
bez krovi) ?" 

"Bez krovi (without blood)," laconically answered 
the count. 

His word to prince Eugene had been: Burn the 
capital rather than deliver it to the enemy ; to Ermilof : 
I do not see why you take so much pains to defend 
Moscow at any price ; if the enemy occupies the city he 
will find nothing that could serve him. 

The treasures which belong to the crown and all that 
is of some value have already been removed ; also, with 
few exceptions, the treasures of the churches, the 
ornaments of gold and silver, the most important 
archives of the state, all have been taken to a place 
of safety. Many of the well-to-do have already taken 
away what is precious. There remain in Moscow only 
50 thousand persons in the most miserable conditions 
who have no other asylum. 

This was what he said on September 13, and on the 
same day he wrote to the emperor that all had been 
sent away. 

But this was not true; there still remained 10 thou- 
sand wounded — of whom the majority would perish in 
case of a conflagration; there remained an immense 
stock of provisions, flour and alcoholic liquor, which 
would fall into the hands of the enemy; there v/as 

62 



still the arsenal in the Kremlin containing 150 cannon, 
60 thousand rifles, 160 thousand cartridges and a great 
deal of sulphur and saltpeter. 

During the night from the 14th. to the 15th. Ros- 
topchine developed a great activity, though he could 
save only some miraculous images left in the churches, 
and destroy some magazines. 

The inhabitants suddenly aroused from their 
security went to the barriers of the city and obstructed 
the streets with vehicles ; to remove what still remained 
in Moscow the means of transportation and the time 
allowed for this purpose wxre insufficient. 

Those who remained had nothing to lose and were 
glad to take revenge on the rich by burning and 
pillaging their mansions. 

On the 14th. the criminals in the prisons, with one- 
half of their heads shaved, were set at liberty that they 
might participate in the burning and pillaging. 

Before leaving Moscow Rostopchine uncovered his 
head and said to his son, ''Salute Moscow for the last 
time; in half an hour it will be on fire." 

Quite a literature has developed on the question: 
who has burned Moscow? The documents which 
Popof has examined leave no doubt concerning Ros- 
topchine's part in regard to its conflagration. But, 
after all, it was caused by those who had a right to do 
it, those who, beginning at Smolensk, burned their 
villages, their hamlets, even their ripening or ripened 
harvest, after the Russian army had passed and the 
enemy came in sight. Who? The Russian people of 
all classes, of all conditions without exception, men 
even invested with public power, and among them 
Rostopchine. 

68 



RETREAT FROM MOSCOW 

During the night from October i8th. to October 
19th., all soldiers were busy loading vehicles with 
provisions and baggage. On October 19th., the first 
day of the retreat, forever memorable on account of 
the misfortune and heroism which characterized it, the 
grand army presented a strange spectacle. The sol- 
diers were in a fair condition, the horses lean and 
exhausted. But, above all, the masses following the 
army were extraordinary. After an immense train of 
artillery of 600 cannon, with all its supplies, came a 
train of baggage the like of which had never been seen 
since the centuries of migration when whole barbarous 
nations went in search of new territories for settle- 
ment. 

The fear that they might run short of rations had 
caused every regiment, every battalion, to carry on 
country wagons all they had been able to procure of 
bread and flour ; but these wagons carrying provisions 
were not the heaviest loaded, not loaded as much as 
those which were packed with booty from the con- 
flagration of Moscow ; in addition, many soldiers over- 
taxing their strength and endurance had filled their 
knapsacks with provisions and booty. Most oflicers 
had secured light Russian country wagons to carry 

provisions and warm clothing. The French, Italian, 

64 



and German families, who lived in Moscow and now 
feared the returning Russians when again entering 
their capital, had asked to accompany the retreating 
army and formed a kind of a colony among the sol- 
diers; with these famiHes were also theatrical people 
and unfortunate women who had lived in Moscow on 
prostitution. 

The almost endless number, the peculiarity of 
vehicles of all description, drawn by miserable horses, 
loaded with sacks of flour, clothing and furniture, 
with sick women and children, constituted a great 
danger, for the question was, how could the army 
maneuvre with such an impediment and, above all, 
defend itself against the Cossacks? 

Napoleon, surprised and almost alarmed, thought at 
first to establish order, but, after some reflection, came 
to the conclusion that the accidents of the road would 
soon reduce the quantity of this baggage, that it would 
be useless to be severe with the poor creatures, that, 
after all, the wagons would serve to transport the 
wounded. He consented therefore to let all go along 
the best they could, he only gave orders that the 
column of these people with their baggage should keep 
at a distance from the column of the soldiers in order 
that the army would be able to maneuvre. 

On October 24th. was the battle of Jaroslawetz in 
which the Russians, numbering 24 thousand, fought 
furiously against 10 thousand or 11 thousand French, 
to cut off the latter from Kalouga, and the French, on 
their part, fought with despair. 

The center of the battle was the burning city taken 
and retaken seven times; many of the wounded 
perished in the flames, their cadavers incinerated, and 
10 thousand dead covered the battlefield. 



Many of the wounded, who could not be transported 
had to be left to their fate at the theater of their 
glorious devotion, to the great sorrow of everybody, 
and many who had been taken along on the march 
during the first days after the battle had also to be 
abandoned for want of means of transportation. The 
road was already covered with wagons for which there 
were no horses. 

The cries of the wounded left on the road were 
heartrending, in vain did they implore their comrades 
not to let them die on the way, deprived of all aid, at 
the mercy of the Cossacks. 

The artillery was rapidly declining on account of 
the exhausted condition of the horses. Notwithstand- 
ing all cursing and whipping, the jaded animals were 
not able to drag the heavy pieces. Cavalry horses 
were taken to overcome the difficulty and this caused 
a reduction of the strength of the cavalry regiments 
without being of much service to the artillery. The 
riders parted with their horses, they had tears in their 
eyes looking for the last time on their animals, but 
they did not utter a word. 

Cavalrymen, with admirable perseverance and 
superhuman efforts, dragged the cannon as far as 
Krasnoe. All men had dismounted and aided the 
exhausted animals only two of which were attached to 
each piece. 

Notwithstanding all the misery of a three-days- 
march to Moshaisk all were hopeful. The distance 
from Moshaisk to Smolensk was covered in seven or 
eight days; the weather, although cold during the 
night, was good during the day, and the soldiers 
gladly anticipated to find, after some more hardship, 



rest, abundance, and warm winter quarters in Smo- 
lensk. 

On the march the army camped on the battlefield of 




Borodino when they saw 50 thousand cadavers lying 
still unburied, broken wagons, demolished cannons, 
helmets, cuirasses, guns spread all over — a horrid 
sight! Wherever the victimes had fallen in large 

67 



numbers one could see clouds of birds of prey rending 
the air with their sinister cries. The reflections which 
this sight excited were profoundly painful. How 
many victims, and what result! The army had 
marched from Wilna to Witebsk, from Witebsk to 
Smolensk, hoping for a decisive battle, seeking this 
battle at Wiasma, then at Ghjat, and had found it at 
last at Borodino, a bloody, terrible battle. The army 
had marched to Moscow in order to earn the fruit of 
all that sacrifice, and at this place nothing had been 
found but an immense conflagration. The army 
returned without magazines, reduced to a compara- 
tively small number, with the prospect of a severe 
winter in Poland, and with a far away prospect of 
peace, — for peace could not be the price of a forced 
retreat, — and for such a result the field of Borodino 
was covered with 50 thousand dead. Here, as we have 
learned, were found the Westphalians, not more than 
3 thousand, the remainder of 10 thousand at Smolensk, 
of 23 thousand who crossed the Niemen. 

Napoleon gave orders to take the wounded at Boro- 
dino into the baggage wagons and forced every officer, 
every refugee from Moscow who had a vehicle, to take 
the wounded as the most precious load. 

The rear guard under Davout left the fearful place 
on October 31st., and camped over night half-way to 
the little town of Ghjat. The night was bitter cold, 
and the soldiers began to suffer very much from the 
low temperature. 

From this time on, every day made the retreat more 
difficult, for the cold became more and more severe 
from day to day, and the enemy more pressing. 

The Russian general, Kutusof, might now have 
marched ahead of Napoleon's army, which was re- 

68 



tarded by so many impediments, and annihilated it 
by a decisive battle, but he did not take this risk, 
preferring a certain and safe tactic, by constantly 
harassing the French, surprising one or the other of the 
rear columns by a sudden attack. He had a strong 
force of cavalry and artillery, and, above all, good 
horses, while the rearguard of the French, for want 
of horses, consisted of infantry; there was, for 
instance, nothing left of General Grouchy's cavalry. 
The infantry of Marshal Davout, who commanded the 
rearguard, had to do the service of all arms, often 
being compelled to face the artillery of the enemy 
which had good horses, while their own was dragged 
along by exhausted animals scarcely able to move. 

Davout's men fought the Russians with the bayonet 
and took cannons from them, but being without horses 
they were compelled to leave them on the road, con- 
tenting themselves to remain undisturbed for some 
hours. 

Gradually the French had to part with their own 
cannons and ammunition; sinister explosions told the 
soldiers of increasing distress. 

As it is in all great calamities of great masses : 
increasing misery also increases egotism and heroism. 
Miserable drivers of wagons to whom the wounded 
had been entrusted took advantage of the night and 
threw the helpless wounded on the road where the 
rearguard found them dead or dying. The guilty 
drivers, when discovered, were punished; but it was 
difficult to detect them, with the general confusion of 
the retreat making its first appearance. 

Wounded soldiers who had been abandoned could 
be seen at every step. The tail of the army, composed 
of stragglers, of tired, discouraged or sick soldiers, all 

69 



marching without arms and without discipUne, con- 
tinually increased in number, to the mortification of 
the rearguard which had to deal with these men who 
would not subordinate their own selves to the welfare 
of the whole. 

It is tempting to describe the terrible engagements, 
the almost superhuman, admirable bravery of 
Napoleon's soldiers, who often, after having had the 
hardest task imaginable and constantly in danger of 
being annihilated, were forced to pass the bitter cold 
nights without eating, without rest, and although all 
details bear on the medical history I am obliged to 
confine myself to a few sketches between the descrip- 
tion of purely medical matters. 



I happened to find in the surgeon-general's library 
a rare book: Moricheau Beaupre, A Treatise on the 
Effects and Properties of Cold, with a Sketch, His- 
torical and Medical, of the Russian Campaign. 
Translated by John Clendining, with appendix, xviii, 
375 PP- 8vo,, Edinburgh, Maclachnan and Stewart, 
1826. 

This most valuable book is not mentioned in any 
of the numerous publications on the medical history of 
the Russian campaign of Napoleon which I examined, 
and I shall now give an extract of what Beaupre writes 
on the Effects of Cold in General : 

Distant expeditions, immaterial whether in cold or 
warm countries, with extremes of temperature, are 
always disadvantageous and must cause great sacrifice 
of life, not only on account of the untried influence 
of extreme temperatures on individuals born in other 
climates, but also on account of the fatigues insepar- 
able from traversing long distances, of an irregular 

70 



life, of a multiplicity of events and circumstances 
impossible to foresee, or which at least had not been 
foreseen, and which operate very unfavorably, morally 
and physically, on military persons. The expedition 
of the French army into Russia offers a sad proof of 
this truth, but history has recorded similar experiences. 
The army of Alexander the Great suffered frightfully 
from cold on two occasions : first, when that ambi- 
tious conqueror involved himself amid snows, in 
savage and barbarous regions of northern Asia before 
reaching the Caucasus; the second time, when, after 
having crossed these mountains, he passed the Tanais 
to subdue the Scythians, and the soldiers were 
oppressed with thirst, hunger, fatigue, and despair, so 
that a great number died on the road, or lost their 
feet from congelation; the cold seizing them, it be- 
numbed their hands, and they fell at full length on the 
snow to rise no more. The best means they knew, 
says Q. Curtius, to escape that mortal numbness, was 
not to stop, but to force themselves to keep marching, 
or else to light great fires at intervals. Charles XII, 
a great warrior alike rash and unreflecting, in 1707 
penetrated into Russia and persisted in his determina- 
tion of marching to Moscow despite the wise advice 
given him to retire into Poland. The winter was so 
severe and the cold so intense that the Swedes and 
Russians could scarcely hold their arms. He saw part 
of his army perish before his eyes, of cold, hunger, 
and misery, amid the desert and icy steppes of the 
Ukraine. If he had reached Moscow, it is probable 
that the Russians would have set him at bay, and that 
his army, forced to retire, would have experienced the 
same fate as the French. 

In the retreat of Prague in 1742 the French army, 

71 



commanded by Marshal Belle-Isle, little accustomed 
to a winter campaign, was forced to traverse imprac- 
ticable defiles across mountains and ravines covered 
with snow. In ten days 4 thousand men perished of 
cold and misery; food and clothing were deficient, the 
soldiers died in anguish and despair, and a great many 
of the officers and soldiers had their noses, feet and 
hands frozen. The Russians regard the winter of 
1812 as one of the most rigorous of which they have 
any record; it was intensely felt through all Russia, 
even in the most southerly parts. As a proof of this 
fact the Tartars of the Crimea mentioned to Beaupre 
the behavior of the great and Httle bustard, which 
annually at that season of the year quit the plain for 
protection against the cold and migrate to the southern 
part of that peninsula toward the coasts. But during 
that winter they were benumbed by the cold and 
dropped on the snow, so that a great many of them 
were caught. In the low hills, in the spring of 181 3, 
the ground in some places was covered with the 
remains of those birds entire. 

Of the effects of cold in general Beaupre says that 
soldiers who are rarely provided with certain articles 
of dress suitable for winter, whose caps do not entirely 
protect the lateral and superior parts of the head, and 
who often suffer from cold in bivouacs, are very 
liable to have ears and fingers seized on by asphyxia 
and mortification. Troopers who remain several days 
without taking off their boots, and whose usual posture 
on horseback contributes to benumb the extremities, 
often have their toes and feet frozen without suspect- 
ing it. 

Cold produces fatal effects above as well as below 

the freezing point. A continued moderate cold has 

72 



the same consequences as a severe cold of short dura- 
tion. When very intense, as in the north, it sometimes 
acts on the organism so briskly as to depress and 
destroy its powers with astonishing rapidity. As the 
action of cold is most frequently slow and death does 
not take place until after several hours' exposure, the 
contraction that diminishes the caliber of the vessels 
more and more deeply, repels the blood toward the 
cavities of the head, chest, and abdomen; it causes, in 
the circulation of the lungs, and in that of the venous 
system of the head, an embarrassment that disturbs 
the function of the brain and concurs to produce 
somnolence. The probability of this explanation is 
strengthened by the flowing of the blood from the nose 
to the ears, spontaneous haemoptysis, also by preter- 
natural redness of the viscera, engorgements of the 
cerebral vessel, and bloody effusion, all of which con- 
ditions have been found after death. 

It is certain that in spite of every possible means of 
congestion or effusion within the cranium, constant 
and forced motion is necessary for the foot soldier to 
save him from surprise. The horseman must dismount 
as quickly as possible and constrain himself to walk. 
Commanders of divisions should not order halts in 
winter, and they should take care that the men do not 
lag behind on the march. Necessary above all are 
gaiety, courage, and perseverance of the mind; these 
qualities are the surest means of escaping danger. 
He who has the misfortune of being alone, inevitably 
perishes. 

In Siberia, the Russian soldiers, to protect themselves 
from the action of the cold, cover their noses and ears 
with greased paper. Fatty matters seem to have the 
power of protecting from cold, or at least of greatly 

73 



diminishing its action. The Laplander and the 
Samoiede anoint their skin with rancid fish oil, and 
thus expose themselves in the mountains to a tempera- 
ture of — 36 deg. Reaumur, or 50 deg. below zero 
Fahrenheit. Xenophon, during the retreat of the 10 
thousand, ordered all his soldiers to grease those parts 
that were exposed to the air. If this remedy could 
have been employed, says Beaupre, on the retreat from 
Moscow, it is probable that it would have prevented 
more than one accident. 

Most of those who escaped the danger of the cold 
ultimately fell sick. In 1813 a number of soldiers, 
more or less seriously injured by cold, filled the hos- 
pitals of Poland, Prussia, and other parts of Germany. 
From the shores of the Niemen to the banks of the 
Rhine it was easy to recognize those persons who con- 
stituted the remainder of an army immolated by cold 
and misery the most appalling. Many, not yet arrived 
at the limit of their sufferings, distributed themselves 
in the hospitals on this side of the Rhine, and even as 
far as the south of France, where they came to under- 
go various extirpations, incisions, and amputations, 
necessitated by the physical disorder so often insepa- 
rable from profound gangraene. 

Mutilation of hands and feet, loss of the nose, of an 
ear, weakness of sight, deafness, complete or incom- 
plete, neuralgy, rheumatism, palsies, chronic diarrhoea, 
pectoral affections, recall still more strongly the 
horrors of this campaign to those who bear such pain- 
ful mementos. 



But now let us return to the dissertation of von 
Scherer which gives the most graphic and complete 

description of the effect of cold. 

74 



After the battle of Borodino, on September 5th. and 
7th., the army marched to Moscow and arrived there 
on September nth., exhausted to the highest degree 
from hunger and misery. The number of Wuert- 
tembergians suffering from dysentery was very large. 
A hospital was organized for them in a sugar refinery 
outside of Moscow. Many died here, but the greater 
number was left to its fate during the retreat of the 
army. 

The quarters at Moscow until October 19th. im- 
proved the condition of the army very little. Devoured 
by hunger, in want of all necessities, the army had 
arrived. The terrible fire of the immense city had 
greatly reduced the hope for comfortable winter 
quarters. Although the eatables which had been saved 
from the fire were distributed among the soldiers who, 
during the weeks of their sojourn, had wine, tea, coffee, 
meat, and bread, all wholesome and plentiful, yet 
dysentery continued and in most patients had assumed 
a typhoid* character. Besides, real typhus had now 
made its appearance in the army and, spreading rapidly 
through infection, caused great loss of life and brought 
the misery to a climax. The great number of the 
sick, crowded together in unfit quarters; the stench 
of the innumerable unburied and putrefying cadavers 
of men and animals in the streets of Moscow, among 
them the corpses of several thousand Russians who 
had been taken prisoners and then massacred, not to 

*The word typhoid means "resembling typhus/' and in 
Europe this term is correctly employed to designate a som- 
nolent or other general condition in all kinds of feverish 
diseases which remind one of typhus symptoms. What 
English and American physicians call typhus or typhus 
fever is known to European physicians under the name of 
exanthematic or petechial typhus, indicating a symptom by 
which it is distinguished from abdominal typhus. 

75 



speak of the putrefying cadavers on the battlefields 
and roads over which the army had marched, all this 
had finally developed into a pest-like typhus. 

After the retreat from Moscow had been decided 
upon, many thousands of the sick were sent ahead 
on wagons under strong guards. These wagons took 
the shortest road to Borodino, while the army took 
the road to Kaluga. Several thousand typhus patients 
were left in Moscow, all of whom died, with the excep- 
tion of a few, according to later information. Many 
of those who, although suffering from typhus, had 
retained strength enough to have themselves trans- 
ported on the wagons, recovered on the way, later to 
become victims of the cold. 

Weakened in body and mind, the army left Moscow 
on October i8th. and I9tli. The weather was clear, 
the nights were cold, when they proceeded in forced 
marches on the road to Kaluga. Near Maloijorolawez 
the enemy attempted to bar the way, and an obstinate 
engagement developed during which the French 
cavalry suffered severely. 

It is true, the Russian battle line was broken, and 
the way was open, but the French army had received 
its death-blow. 

The order which thus far had kept the army was 
shaken, and disorder of all kinds commenced. 

The retreat now continued in the direction of Boro- 
dino, Ghjat, and Wiasma, the same road which had 
been followed on the march toward Moscow, a road 
which was laid waste and entirely deserted. 

The soldiers, in view of the helplessness which mani- 
fested itself, gave up all hope and with dismay looked 
into a terrible future. 

Everywhere surrounded by the enemy who attacked 

76 



vehemently, the soldiers were forced to remain in their 
ranks on the highway ; whoever straggled was lost — 
either killed or made prisoner of war. 

On the immense tract of land extending from Mos- 
cow to Wilna during a march of several days, not a 
single inhabitant, not a head of cattle, was to be seen, 
only cities and villages burnt and in ruins. The misery 
increased from day to day. What little of provisions 
had been taken along from Moscow was lost, together 
with the wagons, on the flight after the engagement of 
Maloijorolawez, and this happened, as we have seen, 
before the army reached Borodino ; the rations which 
the individual soldier had with him were consumed 
during the first few days, and thus a complete want 
made itself felt. The horses, receiving no food, fell in 
great numbers from exhaustion and starvation; can- 
non and innumerable wagons, for want of means to 
transport them, had to be destroyed and left behind. 

From the last days of October until mid-December, 
at which time the army arrived at Wilna, horse meat 
was the only food of the soldiers ; many could not 
obtain even this, and they died from starvation before 
the intense cold weather set in. The meat which the 
soldiers ate was either that of exhausted and sick 
horses which had not been able to walk any further, or 
of such as had been lying dead on the road for some 
time. With the greatest greed and a beastly rage the 
men threw themselves on the dead animals ; they 
fought without distinction of rank and with a disregard 
of all military discipline — officers and privates alike — 
for the possession of the best liked parts of the dead 
animal — the brain, the heart, and the liver. The weak- 
est had to be contented with any part. Many devoured 

the meat raw, others pierced it with the bayonet, 

77 



roasted it at the camp fire and ate it without anything 
else, often with great rehsh. 

Such was the sad condition when the setting in of 
extreme cold weather brought the misery — the horrors 
— to a climax. 

During the last days of October, when the army had 
scarcely reached Borodino, cold winds blew from the 
North. 

The first snowfall was on October 26th., and the 
snow made the march of the enfeebled army difficult 
in the extreme. 

From that date on the cold increased daily, and the 
camping over night was terrible; the extremities of 
those who had no chance to protect themselves with 
clothes nor to come near the campfire became frozen. 

During the first days of November the thermometer 
had fallen to — 12 Reaumur (+4 Fahrenheit). 

Derangements of mind were the first pernicious 
effects of the low temperature that were noticed. 

The first effect on the brain in the strong and healthy 
ones, as well as in the others, was loss of memory. 

von Scherer noticed that, with the beginning of the 
cold weather, many could not remember the names of 
the best known, the everyday things, not even the 
eagerly longed for eatables could they name, or name 
correctly; many forgot their own names and were no 
longer able to recognize their nearest comrades and 
friends. Others had become completely feebleminded, 
their whole expression was that of stupidity. And 
those of a stronger constitution, who had resisted the 
effects of cold on body and mind, became deeply 
horrified on observing, in addition to their own suffer- 
ings, how the mental faculties of the best men, hitherto 
of strong will power, had become impaired, and how 

78 



these unfortunates sooner or later, yet gradually, with 
lucid intervals of a few moments' duration, invariably 
became completely insane. 

The intense cold enfeebled, first of all, the brain of 
those whose health had already suffered, especially of 
those who had had dysentery, but soon, while the cold 
increased daily, its pernicious effect was noticed in all. 

The internal vessels, especially those of the brain 
and the lungs, in many became congested to such a 
degree that all vital activity was paralyzed. 

On necropsy, these vessels of the brain and lungs 
and the right heart were found to be bloated and 
stretched ; in one case the different vessels of the brain 
were torn and quite an amount of blood was effused 
between the meninges and the brain, in most cases 
more or less serum had collected in the cavities. 

The corpses were white as snow, while the central 
organs in every case were hyperaemic. 

At the beginning, while the cold was still tolerable, 
the effect of the humors from the surface of the body 
to the central organs had caused only a slight derange- 
ment of the functions of these organs, like dyspnoea, 
mental weakness, in some more or less indifference, a 
disregard of their surroundings; in short, all those 
symptoms of what was called at that time "Russian 
simpleton." 

Now all actions of the afflicted manifested mental 
paralysis and the highest degree of apathy. 

This condition resembles that of extreme old age, 
when mind and body return to the state of childhood. 

The bodies of those suffering from intense cold 
were shriveled and wrinkled. Men formerly models 
of bodily and mental strength, hardened in war, now 
staggered along, leaning on a stick, wailing and lament- 

79 



ing childlike, begging for a piece of bread, and if 
something to eat was given to them they burst out in 
really childish joy, not seldom shedding tears. 

The faces of these unfortunates were deadly pale, 
the features strangely distorted. Lads resembled men 
of 80 years of age and presented a cretin-like appear- 
ance ; the lips were bluish, the eyes dull, without luster, 
and constantly lachrymal; the veins very small, 
scarcely visit)le; the extremities cold; the pulse could 
not be felt, neither at the radius nor at the temple 
bone, somnolency was general. 

Often it happened that the moment they sank to 
the ground the lower extremities became paralyzed ; 
soon after that, a few drops of blood from the nose 
indicated the moribund condition. 

Severed were all bonds of brotherly love, extin- 
guished all human feeling toward those who, from 
exhaustion, had fallen on the road. 

Many men, among them his former best comrades 
and even relatives, would fall upon such an unfor- 
tunate one to divest him of his clothing and other 
belongings, to leave him naked on the snow, inevitably 
to die. 

The impulse of self-preservation overmastered 
everything in them. 

During the second half of November, and more so 
during the first days of December, especially on the 
8th., 9th., and lOth., when the army arrived at Wilna, 
the cold had reached the lowest degree; during the 
night from December 9th. to December loth. the 
thermometer showed — 32 R (— 40 F.). The cold 
air caused severe pain in the eyes, resembling that of 
strong pressure. The eyes, weakened by the constant 
sight of snow, suffered greatly uiider these circum- 

80 



stances. Many were blinded to such an extent that 
they could not see one step forward, could recognize 
nothing and had to find their way, like the blind in 
general, with the aid of a stick. Many of these fell 
during the march and became stiffened at once. 

During this period von Scherer noticed that those 
who had been suffering very much from cold would 
die quickly when they had fallen to the frozen, ice- 
covered ground; the shaking due to the fall probably 
causing injury to the spinal cord, resulting in sudden 
general paralysis of the lower extremities, the bladder 
and the intestinal tract being affected to the extent of 
an involuntary voiding of urine and feces. 

Surgeon-major von Keller stated to von Scherer the 
following case : "I was lying near Wilna, it was during 
the first days of December, during one of the coldest 
nights, together with several German officers, on the 
road close to a camp fire, when a military servant 
approached us asking permission to bring his master, 
a French officer of the guards, to our fire. 

This permission was willingly granted, and two 
soldiers of the guard brought a tall and strong man of 
about thirty years of age whom they placed on the 
ground between themselves. 

When the Frenchmian learned of the presence of 
a surgeon he narrated that something quite extraor- 
dinary had happened to him. 

Notwithstanding the great general misery, he had 
thus far been cheerful and well, but half an hour 
previous his feet had stiffened and he had been unable 
to walk, and now he had no longer any sensation from 
the toes up the legs. 

I examined him and found that his feet were com- 
pletely stiff, white hke marble, and ice cold. 

81 



The officer was well dressed and, notwithstanding 
his pitiful condition, more cheerful than myself and 
my comrades. 

Soon he felt a strong desire to urinate, but was 
unable to do so. 

With great relish he ate a large piece of horse flesh 
which had been roasted at the fire, but soon complained 
of great illness. 

His cheerfulness changed suddenly to a sensation 
of great distress. Ischuria persisted for several hours 
and caused him great pain; later on during the night, 
he involuntarily voided feces and a large amount of 
urine. He slept a great deal, the breathing was free, 
but at dawn he fell into a helpless condition, and, at 
daybreak, before we had left the fire, this strong man, 
who eight to ten hours before had been in good health, 
died." 

Most excellent and ingenious men in the prime of 
manhood all suffered more or less from the cold ; with 
the exception of a few cases, the senses of all were, if 
not entirely deranged, at least weakened. The longest 
and sometimes complete resistance to the cold was 
offered by those who had always been of a cheerful 
disposition, especially those who had not become dis- 
couraged by the great privations and hardships, who 
ate horse flesh with relish and who in general had 
adapted themselves to circumstances. 

One of the Wuerttembergian officers, a man of con- 
siderable military knowledge and experience, was 
attacked, a few days before reaching Wilna, with 
so pronounced a loss of sensation that he only 
vegetated, moving along in the column like a machine. 

He had no bodily sickness, no fever, was fairly well 
in strength, had never or rarely been in want, but his 

82 



whole sensory system was seriously affected by the 
cold. 

von Scherer saw him, after he arrived at an inn in 
Wilna, somewhat recovered by warmth and food, but 
acting childishly. 

While he ate the food placed before him he would 
make terrible grimaces, crying or laughing for minutes 
at a time. 

His constitution badly shaken, but gradually improv- 
ing, he returned home, and it took a long time before 
he recovered completely. 

All traces of his sickness disappeared finally, and as 
active as ever he attended his former duties. 

Another officer, with whom von Scherer traveled 
a few days between Krasnoe and Orscha, had not until 
then suffered any real want. 

He rode in a well-closed carriage drawn by strong 
horses, had two soldiers as servants, was well dressed 
and suffered, therefore, much less than others. Espe- 
cially was he well protected from the cold, yet this 
had a severe effect on him. His mind became 
deranged, he did not recognize von Scherer with whom 
he had been on intimate terms for years, nor could 
he call either of his servants by name; he would con- 
stantly run alongside the carriage, insisting that it 
belonged to the French emperor and that he was 
entrusted to guard his majesty. 

Only when he had fallen asleep, or by force, was 
von Scherer able, with the aid of the two servants, to 
place him in the carriage. 

His mental condition became worse every day; von 
Scherer had to leave him. 

This officer reached Wilna, where he was made 
a prisoner and soon died in captivity. 

83 



Many more cases resembling these two were 
observed by von Scherer, and other army surgeons 
reported instances of the like effect of cold. 

Surgeon General von Schmetter had remained with 
the Crown Prince of Wuerttemberg in Wilna, while 
the army marched to Moscow. 

He reported many cases of unfortunates whom he 
had received in the hospital in Wilna, who by cold and 
misery of all kinds had been reduced to a pitiful state 
— men formerly of a vigorous constitution presented a 
puerile appearance and had become demented. 

A cavalryman of the regiment Duke Louis, who, 
during February, 1813, had been admitted into the 
hospital of Wilna, suffering from quiet mania without 
being feverish, was constantly searching for something. 

Hands and feet had been frozen. He became ill 
with typhus and was more or less delirious for two 
weeks. 

/ fter the severity of the sickness had abated he 
again began to search anxiously for something, and 
after the fever had left him he explained that thirty 
thousand florins, which he had brought with him to the 
hospital, had been taken away. 

It was learned that this cavalryman had been sent, 
together with other comrades, with dispatches to 
Murat ; that these men had defended Murat with great 
bravery when he was in danger in the battle of Boro- 
dino. 

Murat, in recognition of their bravery, which had 
saved him, had given them a wagon with gold, which 
they were to divide among themselves. 

The share of each of these cavalrymen amounted to 
over thirty thousand florins, and the gold was trans- 
ported on four horses, but these horses, for want of 

84 



food, had broken down under the load, and the gold 
had fallen into the hands of the Cossacks. 

The patient became quite ecstatic when, during his 
convalescence, he was told that he had brought no gold 
with him into the hospital; only gradually could he 
be made to understand that he had been mistaken. 

He said, however, that he could not recollect having 




been robbed during the retreat, although this fact had 
been testified to by two witnesses. 

Two years after he had left the hospital and quitted 
the military service, when he was perfectly well and 
vigorous again, he recollected that on a very cold day 
he had been taken prisoner by Cossacks, who had left 
him, naked and unconscious, in the snow. 

85 



He could not remember how and when he had come 
into the hospital. Notwithstanding all these later re- 
collections, he still imagined from time to time that he 
had brought the gold with him into the hospital. 

Surgeon General von Schmetter reported further 
the case of a cavalryman of the King's regiment who, 
like many others, had returned from Russia in an 
imbecile condition. 

He spoke alternately, or mixed up, Polish, Russian, 
and German; he had to be fed like a child, could not 
remember his name or the name of his native place, 
and died from exhaustion eight days after admittance 
into the hospital. 

On necropsy of the quite wrinkled body, the cerebral 
vessels were found full of blood, the ventricles full 
of serum. On the surface of the brain between the 
latter and the meninges were found several larger and 
smaller sacs filled with lymph, the spinal canal full 
of serum ; in the spinal cord plain traces of inflamma- 
tion. In the lungs there was much dark coagulated 
blood, and likewise in the vena cava; in the stomach 
and intestines, many cicatrices; the mesenteric glands 
and pancreas were much degenerated and filled with 
pus ; the rectum showed many cicatrices and several 
ulcers. 

In the hospital of Mergentheim eight necropsies 
were held on corpses of soldiers who had returned 
mentally affected in consequence of exposure to 
extreme cold. Similar conditions had presented them- 
selves in all these cases. 

Surgeon General von Kohlreuter attended an in- 
fantry officer who had arrived at Inorawlow, in 
Poland, where the remainder of the Wuerttembergian 
corps had rallied. He showed no special sickness, had 

86 



no fever, but fell into complete apathy. For a long 
time he had great weakness of mind, but recovered 
completely in the end. 

Of another patient of this kind, an officer of the 
general staff, who had been treated after that fatal 
retreat from Moscow, von Kohlreuter reports that 
later on he recovered completely from the mental 
derangement, but died on his return, near the borders 
of Saxony, from exhaustion. 

An infantry officer became mentally deranged some- 
time after he had returned to his home ; it took a long 
time, but finally he recovered without special medical 
aid. 

Recovery of such cases was accomplished by time, 
a mild climate, by social intercourse, and good nourish- 
ment; many of them, on the way through Germany 
and before they reached their own home, had com- 
pletely regained their mental faculties, and only in a 
small number of cases did it take a long period of time 
and medication before recovery was assured. 

The effect of intense cold on wounds was very 
severe: Violent inflammation, enormous swelling, 
gangraene — the latter often due to the impossibility of 
proper care. Larger wounds sometimes could not be 
dressed on the retreat, and while the cold weather 
lasted gangraene and death followed in quick suc- 
cession. The effect of cold was noticed also on 
wounds which had healed and cicatrized. 

von Happrecht, an officer of the regiment Duke 
Louis, had been wounded in the foot by a cannon ball 
in the battle of Borodino on September 7th., and 
Surgeon-General von Kohlreuter had amputated it. 
Fairly strong and cheerful, this officer arrived safely 
at the Beresina. The passage over this river was, as 

87 



is well known, very dangerous, and von Happfecht 
had to wait, exposed to cold, for some time before he 
could cross. Soon after traversing on horseback he 
felt as if he had lost the stump; he had no sensation 
in the leg the foot of which had been amputated. 
Unfortunately, he approached a fire to warm himself 
and felt a severe pain in the stump ; extensive inflam- 
mation, with swelling, set in ; gangraene followed and, 
notwithstanding most skilful attendance, he died soon 
after his arrival at Wilna. 

So far von Scherer. Beaupre, speaking of his own 
observations of the effects of extreme cold, gives the 
following account: 

Soldiers unable to go further fell and resigned 
themselves to death, in that frightful state of despair 
which is caused by the total loss of moral and physical 
force, which was aggravated to the utmost by the sight 
of their comrades stretched Hfeless on the snow. Dur- 
ing a retreat so precipitate and fatal, in a country 
deprived of its resources, amid disorder and confusion, 
the sad physician was forced to remain an astonished 
spectator of evils he could not arrest, to which he could 
apply no remedy. The state of matters remarkably 
affected the moral powers. The consternation was 
general. Fear of not escaping the danger was very 
naturally allied with the desperate idea of seeing one's 
country no more. None could flatter himself that his 
courage and strength would suffice so that he would 
be able to withstand privations and sufferings beyond 
human endurance. Italians, Portuguese, Spaniards, 
those from the temperate and southern parts of France^ 
obliged to brave an austere climate unknown to them, 
directed their thoughts toward their country and with 

88 



good reasons regretted the beauty of the heaven, the 
softness of the air of the regions of their birth. 

Nostalgia was common. . . . The army was but 
three days from Smolensk when the heavens became 
dark, and snow began to fall in great flakes, in such a 
quantity that the air was obscured. The cold was then 
felt with extreme severity; the northern wind blew 
impetuously into the faces of the soldiers and incom- 
moded many who were no longer able to see. They 
strayed, fell into the snow — above all, when night 
surprised them — and thus miserably perished. 

Disbanded regiments were reduced to almost nothing 
by the loss of men continually left behind either on 
the roads or in the bivouacs. 

Of the days of Smolensk he writes : In the streets 
one met with none but sick and wounded men asking 
for hospitals, soldiers of every sort, of every nation, 
going and coming, some of them trying to find a place 
where provisions were sold or distributed; others 
taciturn, incapable of any effort, absorbed by grief, 
half dead with cold, awaiting their last hour. On all 
sides there were complaints and groans, dead and 
dying soldiers, all of which presented a picture that 
was still further darkened by the ruinous aspect of the 
city. . . At Smolensk Beaupre himself had a narrow 
escape from freezing to death ; he narrates : During 
the frightful night when we left Smolensk I felt much 
harassed; toward 5 in the morning, a feeling of las- 
situde impelled mc to stop and rest. I sat down on the 
trunk of a birch, beside eight frozen corpses, and soon 
experienced an inclination to sleep, to which I yielded 
the more willingly as at that moment it seemed 
delicious. Fortunately I was aroused from that 

incipient somnolency — which infallibly would have 

89 



brought on torpor — -by the cries and oaths of two 
soldiers who were violently striking a poor exhausted 
horse that had fallen down. 

I emerged from that state with a sort of shock. 

The sight of what was beside me strongly recalled 
to my mind the danger to which I exposed myself; I 
took a little brandy and started to run to remove the 
numbness of my legs, the coldness and insensibility 
of which were as if they had been immersed in an 
iced bath. 

He then describes his experience in similar cases: 
It happened three or four times that I assisted some 
of those unfortunates who had just fallen and began 
to doze, to rise again and endeavored to keep them in 
motion after having given them a little sweetened 
brandy. 

It was in vain; they could neither advance nor 
support themselves, and they fell again in the same 
place, where of necessity they had to be abandoned to 
their unhappy lot. Their pulse was small and im- 
perceptible. Respiration, infrequent and scarcely 
sensible in some, was attended in others by complaints 
and groans. Sometimes the eyes were open, fixed, 
dull, wild, and the brain was seized by a quiet 
delirium; in other instances the eyes were red and 
manifested a transient excitement of the brain; there 
was marked delirium in these cases. Some stammered 
incoherent words, others had a reserved and convulsive 
cough. In some blood flowed from the nose and ears ; 
they agitated their limbs as if groping. (This descrip- 
tion of Beaupre complements the account given by von 
vScherer. ) 

Many had their hands, feet, and ears frozen. A 
great many were anortally stricken when obliged to 

90 



stop to relieve nature; the arrival of that dreaded 
moment was in fact very embarrassing, on account of 
the danger of exposing oneself to the air as well as 
owing to the numbness of the fingers which rendered 
them unable to readjust the clothes. . . . 

And they traveled day and night, often without 
knowing where they were. 

Ultimately they were obliged to stop, and, complain- 
ing, shivering, forced to lie down in the woods, on the 
roads, in ditches, at the bottom of ravines, often 
without fire, because they had no wood at hand, nor 
strength enough to go and cut some in the vicinity; if 
they succeeded in lighting one, they warmed them- 
selves as they could, and fell asleep without delay. 

The first hours of sleep were delightful, but, alas! 
they were merely the deceitful precursor of death that 
was waiting for them. 

The fire at length became extinct for want of atten- 
tion or owing to the great blast. Instead of finding 
safety in the sweets of sleep, they were seized and 
benumbed by cold, and never saw daylight again. . . . 

I have seen them sad, pale, despairing, without arms, 
staggering, scarce able to sustain themselves, their 
heads hanging to the right or left, their extremities 
contracted, setting their feet on the coals, lying down 
on hot cinders, or falling into the lire, which they 
sought mechanically, as if by instinct. 

Others apparently less feeble, and resolved not to 
allow themselves to be depressed by misfortune, rallied 
their powers to avoid sinking; but often they quitted 
one place only to perish in another. 

Along the road, in the adjacent ditches and fields, 
were perceived human carcasses, heaped up and lying 
at random in fives, tens, fifteens and twenties, of such 

9;l 



as had perished during the night, which was always 
more murderous than the day. 

When no longer able to continue walking, having 
neither strength nor will power, they fell on their 
knees. 

The muscles of the trunk were the last to lose the 
power of contraction. 



f.// 



A 



H 






.#'- 







" And never saw daylight again." 

Many of those unfortunates remained for some 
time in that posture contending with death. 

Once fallen it was impossible for them, even with 
their utmost efforts, to rise again. The danger of 
stopping had been universally observed ; but, alas ! 
presence of m-ind and firm determination did not 
always suffice to ward off mortal attacks made from all 
directions upon one miserable life ! 



92 



WIASMA 

About a mile and a half from Wiasma the enemy 
appeared to the left of the road, and his fire happened 
to strike the midst of the tail of the army, composed 
of disbanded soldiers without arms, with wounded 
and sick among them, and women and children. 
Every artillery discharge of the Russians caused 
frightful cries and a frightful commotion in the help- 
less mass. 

And the rear guard, in trying to make them advance, 
ill-treated them, the soldiers who had clung to the flag 
assumed the right to despise those who, either volun- 
tarily or under compulsion, had abandoned it. 

Of the old generals of Davout some had been killed, 
Friant was so severely wounded that he could not be 
about, Compans had been wounded in the arm, 
Moraud in the head, but these two, the former with 
one arm in a sling, the other with a bandaged head, 
were on horseback, surrounding the marshal com- 
manding the first corps which had been reduced to 
15 thousand from 20 thousand at Moshaisk, from 28 
thousand in Moscow, and from ']2 thousand crossing 
the Niemen. The remaining 15 thousand were all old 
warriors whose iron constitution had triumphed. 

The battle of Wiasma took place on the 2d. of 

November. The Russians under Miloradovitch had 

100 cannon, whereas the French under Ney, Davout, 

93 



and the wounded generals named above, had only 40. 
This day cost the French 1,500 to 1,800 men in killed 
and wounded, and, as mentioned, these were of the 
oldest and best; the loss of the Russians was twice 
that number, but their wounded were not lost, while 
it was impossible to save a single one of the French, 
for the latter had no attendance at all; the cold being 
very severe it killed them, and those who did not 
perish by the frost were put to death by the cruel, 
ferocious Russian peasants. 

Entering Wiasma at night, nothing in the way of 
provisions was found; the guard and the corps which 
had been there before the battle had devoured every- 
thing. No provisions were left of those taken along 
from Moscow. The army passed a sombre and bitter 
cold night in a forest; great fires were Hghted, horse 
meat was roasted, and the soldiers of Prince Eugene 
and of Marshal Davout, especially the latter who had 
been on their feet for three days, slept profoundly 
around great camp-fires. During two weeks they had 
been on duty to cover the retreat and during this time 
had lost more than one half of their number. 

Napoleon arrived at Dorogobouge on November 
5th., the Prince Eugene on the 6th., the other corps 
on the 7th. and 8th. 

Until then the frost had been severe but not yet 
fatal. All of a sudden, on the 9th., the weather 
changed, and there was a terrible snow-storm. 

On their way to Moscow the regiments had traversed 
Poland during a suffocating heat and had left their 
warm clothing in the magazines. 

Some soldiers had taken furs with them from Mos- 
cow, but had sold them to their officers. 

Well nourished, they could have stood the frost, but 

94 



living on a little flour diluted with water, on horse 
meat roasted at the camp fire, sleeping on the ground 
without shelter, they suffered frightfully. We shall 
later on speak more in detail of the miserable clothing. 

The first snow which had been falling after they had 
left Dorogobouge had seriously increased the general 
misery. Except among the soldiers of the rear guard 
which had been commanded with inflexible firmness by 
Davout, and which was now led by Ney, the sense of 
duty began to be lost by almost all soldiers. 

As we have learned, all the wounded had to be left 
to their fate, and soldiers who had been charged to 
escort Russian prisoners relieved themselves of their 
charge by shooting these prisoners dead. 

The horses had not been shod in Russian fashion 
for traveling on the ice. The army had come during 
the summer without any idea of returning during the 
winter; the horses slipped on the ice, those of the 
artillery were too feeble to draw cannon even of small 
calibre, they were beaten unmercifully until they 
perished ; not only cannons and ammunition had to be 
left, but the number of vehicles carrying necessities 
of life diminished from day to day. The soldiers lived 
on the fallen horses ; when night came the dead animals 
were cut to pieces by means of the sabre, huge por- 
tions were roasted at immense fires, the men devoured 
them and went to sleep around the fires. If the Cos- 
sacks did not disturb their dearly bought sleep the 
men would awake; some half burnt, others finding 
themselves lying in the mud which had formed around 
them, and many would not rise any more. General 
von Kerner, of the Wuerttembergian troops had slept 
in a barn during the night from November 7th. to 
November 8th. Coming out at daybreak he saw his 

95 



men in the plain as they had lain down around a fire 
the evening before, frozen and dead. The survivors 
would depart, hardly glancing at the unfortunates 
who had died or were dying, and for whom they could 
do nothing. 

The snow would soon cover them, and small 
eminences marked the places where these brave sol- 
diers had been sacrificed for a foolish enterprise. 

It was under these circumstances that Ney, the 
man of the greatest energy and of a courage which 
could not be shaken by any kind of suffering, took 
command of the rear guard, reHeving Davout whose 
inflexible firmness and sense of honor and duty were 
not less admirable than the excellent qualities of Ney. 
The bravest of the braves, as Napoleon had called 
Ney, had an iron constitution, he never seemed to be 
tired nor suffering from any ailment; he passed the 
night without shelter, slept or did not sleep, ate or did 
not eat, without ever being discouraged; most of the 
time he was on his feet in the midst of his soldiers; 
he did not find it beneath the dignity of a Marshal of 
France, ^hen necessary, to gather 50 or 100 men about 
him and lead them, like a simple captain of infantry, 
against the enemy under fire of musketry, calm, serene, 
believing himself invulnerable and being apparently 
so indeed; he did not find it incompatible with his 
rank to take up the musket of a soldier who had 
fallen and to fire at the enemy like a private. There 
is a great painting in the gallery of Versailles repre- 
senting him in such an action. He had never been 
wounded in battle. And this great hero was executed 
in the morning of December 7th., 181 5, in the garden 
of the Luxembourg. 

Louis XVIII, this miserable and insignificant man 

96 



of legitimate royal blood who had never rendered any 
service to France, wanted revenge — Ney was arrested 
and condemned by the Chamber of Peers after the 
marshals had refused to condemn him. His wife 
pleaded in vain for his Hfe, the king remained in- 
flexible. Ney was simply shot by 12 poor soldiers 
commanded for the execution. After the marshal 
had sunk down, an Englishman suddenly rode up at a 
gallop and leaped over the fallen hero, to express the 
triumph of the victors. It was in as bad taste as 
everything that England contrived against Napoleon 
and his men.* 

Among the spectators there was also a Russian 
general in full uniform and on horseback. Tzar 
Alexander expelled him from the army after he had 
heard of it. 

The Bourbons commenced a tromocraty which was 
called, in contrast to the terrorisms of the revolution, 
the white terror.- 

Much has been written about the fantastic costume 
of Murat, but I do not recollect having read the true 
explanation of it. All writers agree that he was the 
bravest, the greatest cavalry general. As such he 
meant to be distinguished from far and near in the 
midst of the battle where danger was greatest, so that 
the sight of his person, his exposure to the enemy, 
should encourage and inspire his soldiers. He rode 
a very noble white horse and wore a Polish kurtka of 
light blue velvet which reached down to the knees, 
embroidered with golden lace, dark red mameluke 
pantaloons with golden galloons, white gauntlets and 

* Brave men were condemned to deportation or were 
executed ; derision and mocking of Napoleon's generals was 
the order of the day. 

97 



a three-cornered general's hat with white plumes; the 
saddle was of red velvet and a caparison of the same 
stuff, all embroidered with gold. The neck of the 
king was bare, a large white scalloped collar fell over 
the collar of the kurtka. A strong black full beard 
gave a martial expression to his face with the fiery eyes 
and regular features. Sometimes he wore a biretta 
with a diamond agraffe and a high plume of heron 
feathers. Very seldom he appeared in the uniform 
of a marshal. 

And this other great hero, who, like Ney, had never 
been wounded in battle, was executed by order of the 
court of Naples on October 13th., 181 5, in the hall of 
castle Pizzo. 



98 



VOP 

In order to give an idea of the great difficulties the 
soldiers had to face, and examples of their heroic 
behavior under trying circumstances, let us relate the 
disaster of Vop. 

While Napoleon, with the imperial guard, the corps 
of Marshal Davout and a mass of stragglers, all 
escorted by Marshal Ney, was marching on the road 
to Smolensk, Prince Eugene had taken the road to 
Doukhowtchina. The prince had with him 6 or 7 
thousand men under arms, including the Italian guard, 
some Bavarian cavalry which still had their horses and 
their artillery mounted, and also many stragglers, with 
these a number of families who had been following 
the Italian division. 

At the end of the first day's journey — it was on 
November 8th. — near the castle Zazale, they hoped to 
find at this castle some provisions and an abode for 
the night. A great cold had set in, and when they 
came to a hill the road was so slippery that it was 
almost impossible to negotiate the elevation with even 
the lightest load. Detaching horses from the pieces 
in order to double and treble the teams they succeeded 
in scaling the height with cannons of small calibre, but 
they were forced to abandon the larger ones. 

The men being exhausted as well as the horses they 

felt humiliated at being obliged to leave their best 

pieces. 

99 



While they had exerted themselves with such sad 
results, Platow had followed them with his Cossacks 
and light cannons mounted on sleighs and incessantly 
fired into the French. The commander of the Italian 
artillery, General Anthouard, was severely wounded 
and was compelled to give up his command. 

A gloomy night was passed at the castle Zazale. 

On the morning of the gth. they left at an early 
hour to cross the Vop, a little rivulet during the sum- 
mer but now quite a river, at least four feet deep and 
full of mud and ice. 

The pontooneers of Prince Eugene had gone ahead, 
working during the night to construct a bridge, but 
frozen and hungry they had suspended their work for 
a few hours, to finish it after a short rest. 

At daybreak those most anxious to cross went on 
the unfinished bridge which they thought was com- 
pleted. 

A heavy mist prevented them from recognizing 
their error until the first ones fell into the icy water 
emitting piercing cries. Finally horses and men waded 
through the water — some succeeded, other succumbed. 

It would lead too far to give here a full description 
of the distressing scenes, the difficulty of passing with 
artillery and the mostly vain attempts to bring over 
the baggage wagons. But, to cap the climax, there 
arrived 3 or 4 thousand Cossacks shouting savagely. 
With the greatest difficulty only was the rear guard 
able to keep them at a distance so that they could not 
come near enough to make use of their lances. Their 
artillery, however, caused veritable desolation. 

Among the poor fugitives from Moscow there were 
a number of Italian and French women; these un- 
fortunates stood at the border of the river, crying and 

100 



embracing their children, but not daring to wade 
through it. Brave soldiers, full of humanity, took the 
little ones in their arms and passed with them, some 
repeating this two and three times, in order to bring 
all the children safely over. These desolate families, 
not being able to save their vehicles, lost with them the 
means of subsistence brought from Moscow. All the 
baggage, the entire artillery with the exception of 
seven or eight pieces, had been lost, and a thousand 
men had been killed by the fire of the Cossacks. 

This dreadful event on the retreat from Moscow is 
called the disaster of Vop and was the precursor of 
another disaster of the same nature, but a hundred 
times more frightful, the disaster of the Beresina. 



There was another cause of death of which we 
have not spoken yet: this v^as the action of the heat 
at the campfires. Anxious to warm themselves, most 
of the soldiers hastened to bring their limbs near the 
flame ; but this sudden exposure to extreme heat, after 
having suffered from the other extreme — cold — ^was 
acting on the feeble circulation in the tissues and 
produced gangraene of the feet, the hands, even of the 
face, causing paralysis either partial, of the extrem- 
ities, or general, of the whole body. 

Only those were saved who had been able to keep 
up their circulation by means of hot drinks or other 
stimulants and who, noticing numbness, had rubbed the 
affected parts with snow. Those who did not or could 
not resort to these precautions found themselves 
paralyzed, or stricken with sudden gangraene, in the 
morning when the camp broke up. 

The hospitals of Koenigsberg admitted about lo 
thousand soldiers of Napoleon's army, only a small 

101 



number of whom had been wounded, most of them 
with frozen extremities, who had, as the physicians 
of that time called it, a pest, the fever of congelation 
which was terribly contagious. 

The heroic Larrey although exhausted from fatigue 
had come to these hospitals to take care of the sick, 
but he became infected with the contagion himself 
and was taken sick. 

A great calamity was the want of shoes; we have 
seen that this was already felt in Moscow, before they 
set out on the endless march over ice and snow. 

The soldiers had their feet wrapped in rags, pieces 
of felt or leather, and when a man had fallen on the 
road some of his comrades would cut off his feet and 
carry them to the next camp fire to remover the rags — 
for their own use. 

But the general appearance of the emaciated soldiers 
with long beards, and faces blackened by the smoke 
of camp-fires, the body wrapped in dirty rags of wear- 
ing apparel brought from Moscow, was such that it 
was difficult to recognize them as soldiers. 

And the vermin! Carpon, a surgeon-major of the 
grand army, in describing the days of Wilna which 
were almost as frightful as the disaster of the Beresina, 
speaks on this subject. It is revolting. Strange to 
say, it is hardly ever mentioned in the medical history 
of wars, although every one who has been in the field 
is quite familiar with it. 

At last I have found — in Holzhausen's book — a 

description of the most revolting lice plague (phthei- 

riasis) from which, according to his valet, Constant, 

even the emperor was not exempted. As a matter of 

course under the circumstances — impossibility of 

bodily cleanliness — this vermin developed in a way 

102 



which baffles description. Suckow, a Wuerttembergian 
first lieutenant, speaks of it as causing intolerable 
distress, disturbing the sleep at the campfire. Johann 
von Borcke became alarmed when he discovered that 
his whole body was eaten up by these insects. A 
French colonel relates that in scratching himself he 
tore a piece of flesh from the neck, but that the pain 
caused by this w^ound produced a sensation of relief. 



108 



SMOLENSK 

All the corps marched to Smolensk where they ex- 
pected to reach the end of all their misery and to find 
repose, food, shelter ; in fact, all they were longing for. 

Napoleon entered the city with his guards and kept 
the rest of the army, including the stragglers, out of 
doors until arrangements could have been made for the 
regular distribution of rations and quarters. But 
together with the stragglers the mass of the army 
became unmanageable and resorted to violence. 

Seeing that the guards were given the preference 
they broke out in revolt, entered by force and pillaged 
the magazines. " The magazines are pillaged !" was the 
general cry of terror and despair. Every one was 
running to grasp something to eat. 

Finally, something like order was established to save 
some of the provisions for the corps of Prince Eugene 
and Marshal Ney who arrived after fighting constantly 
to protect the city from the troops of the enemy. They 
received in their turn eatables and a little rest, not 
under shelter but in the streets, where they were pro- 
tected, not from the frost, but from the enemy. 

There were no longer any illusions. The army 
having hoped to find shelter and protection, sub- 
sistence, clothes and, above all, shoes, at Smolensk, 
they found nothing of all this and learned that they 

had to leave, perhaps the next day, to recommence the 

104 



interminable march without abode for the night, with- 
out bread to eat and constantly fighting while ex- 
hausted, witli the cruel certainty that if wounded they 
would be the prey of wolves and vultures. 

This prospect made them all desperate; they saw 
the abyss, and still the worst was yet in store for 
them : Beresina and Wilna ! 

Napoleon left Smolensk on November 14th. The 
cold had become more intense — 21 deg. Reaumur (16 
deg. below zero Fahrenheit) — this is the observation 
of Larrey who had a thermometer attached to his 
coat; he was the only one who kept a record of the 
temperature. 

The cold killed a great many, and the road became 
covered with dead soldiers resting under the snow. 

To the eternal honor of the most glorious of all 
armies be it said that it v/as only at the time when 
the misery had surpassed all boundaries, when the 
soldiers had to camp on the icy ground with an empty 
stomach, their limbs paralyzed in mortal rigor, that 
the dissolution began. 

It was even after the heroic battle of Wiasma that 
they fought day for day. 

It was not the cold which caused the proud army 
to disband, but hunger. 

Provisions could nowhere be found; all horses 
perished, and with them the possibility of transporting 
food and ammunition. 

And it is one thing to suffer cold and hunger, 
travelling under ordinary circumstances, and another 
to suffer thus and at the same time being followed by 
the enemy. 



105 



BERESINA 

In order to understand the disaster of the Beresina 
it is necessary to cast a glance at the condition of 
Napoleon's army at that time. 

After the battle at Krasnoe, Napoleon at Orscha, on 
November 19th., happy to have found a place of 
safety at last, with well furnished magazines, made 
a new attempt to rally the army by means of a regular 
distribution of rations. A detachment of excellent 
gendarmes had come from France and was employed 
to do police duty, to engage everybody, either by per- 
suasion or by force, to join his corps. These brave 
men, accustomed to suppress disorder in the rear of 
the army, had never witnessed anything like the con- 
dition with which they were obliged to deal at this 
time. They were dismayed. All their efforts were in 
vain. Threats, promises of rations if the soldiers 
would fall in line, were of no avail whatever. The 
men, whether armed or not, thought it more con- 
venient, above all more safe, to care for themselves 
instead of again taking up the yoke of honor, thereby 
taking the risk of being killed, or wounded, — ^which 
amounted to the same thing — they would not think of 
sacrificing their individual self for the sake of the 
whole. Some of the disbanded soldiers had retained 
their arms, but only to defend themselves against the 
Cossacks and to be better able to maraud. They lived 

106 



from pillaging, taking advantage of the escort of the 
army, without rendering any service. In order to 




v/arm themselves they would put fire to houses oc- 
cupied by wounded soldiers, many of whom perished 

107 



in the flames in consequence. They had become real 
ferocious beasts. Among these marauders were only 
very few old soldiers, for most of the veterans re- 
mained with the flag until death. 

Napoleon addressed the guards, appealing to their 
sense of duty, saying that they were the last to uphold 
military honor, that they, above all, had to set the 
example to save the remainder of the army which 
was in danger of complete dissolution; that if they, 
the guards, would become guilty, they would be more 
guilty than any of the other corps, because they had no 
excuse to complain of neglect, for what few supplies 
had been at the disposal of the army, their wants had 
always been considered ahead of the rest of the army, 
that he could resort to punishments, could have shot 
the first of the old grenadiers who would leave the 
ranks, but that he preferred to rely on their virtue as 
warriors to assure their devotedness. The grenadiers 
expressed their assent and gave promises of good con- 
duct. All surviving old grenadiers remained in the 
ranks, not one of them had disbanded. Of the 6 
thousand who had crossed the Niemen, about 3,500 
survived, the others had succumbed to fatigue or frost, 
very few had fallen in battle. 

The disbanded soldiers of the rest of the army, 
having in view another long march, with great suf- 
ferings to endure, were not disposed to change their 
ways. They now needed a long rest, safety, and 
abundance, to make them recognize military discipline 
again. The order to distribute rations among those 
who had rallied around the flag could not be kept up 
for more than a few hours. The magazines were 
pillaged, as they had been pillaged at Smolensk. The 

108 



forty-eight hours' stay at Orscha was utilized for rest 
and to nourish a few men and the horses. 

In these days Napoleon was as indefatigable as he 
ever had been as young Bonaparte. His proclamation 
of the 19th. did not remain quite unheeded even 
among the disbanded, but, on the march again, the 
nearer they came to the Beresina the more pronounced 
became the lack of discipline. In the following 
description I avail myself of the classical work of 
Thiers' " Histoire du Consulat et de I'Empire." 

The only bridge over the Beresina, at Borisow, had 
been burned by the Russians. It was as by miracle 
that General Corbineau met a Polish peasant who 
indicated a place— near the village Studianka—where 
the Beresina could be forded by horses. Napoleon, 
informed of this fact on November 28th., at once 
ordered General Eble to construct the bridge and on 
November 25th., at i o'clock in the morning, he issued 
orders to Oudinot to have his corps ready for crossing 
the river. The moment had arrived when the great 
engineer, the venerable General Eble, was to crown his 
career by an immortal service. 

He had saved six cases containing tools, nails, 
clamps, and all kinds of iron pieces needed for the 
construction of trestle bridges. In his profound fore- 
sight he had also taken along two wagon-loads of 
charcoal, and he had imder his command 400 ex- 
cellent pontooneers upon whom he could reply 
absolutely. 

General Eble has been described as the model of an 
officer, on account of his imposing figure and his 
character. 

Eble and Larrey were the two men whom the whole 
army never ceased to respect and to obey, even when 

109 



they demanded things which were almost impossible. 
General Eble then with his 400 men departed in the 
evening of November 24th. for Borisow, followed by 
the clever General Chasseloup who had some sappers 
with him, but without their tools. General Chasseloup 
was a worthy associate of the illustrious chief of the 
pontooneers. They marched all night, arriving at 
Borisow on the 25th., at 5 o'clock in the morning. 
There they left some soldiers in order to deceive the 
Russians by making them believe that the bridge was 
to be constructed below Borisow. Eble with his pon- 
tooneers, however, marched through swamps and 
woods along the river as far as Studianka, arriving 
there during the afternoon of the 25th. Napoleon in 
his impatience wanted the bridges finished on that day, 
an absolute impossibility; it could not be done until 
the 26th., by working all night, and not to rest until 
this was accomplished was the firm resolution of these 
men who by that time had marched two days and two 
nights. General Eble spoke to his pontooneers, tell- 
ing them that the fate of the army was in their hands. 
He inspired them with noble sentiments and received 
the promise of the most absolute devotedness. They 
had to work in the bitter cold weather — severe frost 
having suddenly set in — all night and during the next 
day, in the water, in the midst of floating ice, probably 
under fire of the enemy, without rest, almost without 
time to swallow some boiled meat; they had not even 
bread or salt or brandy. This was the price at which 
the army could be saved. Each and every one of the 
pontooneers pledged himself to their general, and we 
shall see how they kept their word. 

Not having time to fell trees and to cut them into 
planks, they demolished the houses of the unfortunate 

110 



village Studianka and took all the wood which could 
serve for the construction of bridges ; they forged the 
iron needed to fasten the planks and in this way they 
made the trestles. At daybreak of the 26th. theyplunged 
these trestles into the Beresina. Napoleon, together 
with some of his generals, Murat, Berthier, Eugene, 
Caulaincourt, Duroc, and others, had hastened to 
Studianka on this morning to witness the progress of 
Eble's work. Their faces expressed the greatest 
anxiety, for at this moment the question was whether 
or not the master of the world would be taken prisoner 
by the Russians. He watched the men working, exerting 
all their might in strength and intelligence. But it was 
by no means sufficient to plunge bravely into the icy 
water and to fasten the trestles, the almost superhuman 
work had to be accomplished in spite of the enemy 
whose outposts were visible on the other side of the 
river. Were there merely some Cossacks, or was there 
a whole army corps ? This was an important question 
to solve. One of the officers, Jacqueminot, who was 
as brave as he was intelligent, rode into the water, 
traversed the Beresina, the horse swimming part of 
the way, and reached the other shore. On account of 
the ice the landing was very difficult. In a little wood 
he found some Cossacks, but altogether only very few 
enemies could be seen. Jacqueminot then turned back 
to bring the good news to the emperor. As it was of 
the greatest importance to secure a prisoner to obtain 
exact information about what was to be feared or to 
be hoped, the brave Jacqueminot once more crossed 
the Beresina, this time accompanied by some deter- 
mined cavalry men. They overpowered a Russian 
outpost, the men sitting around a fire, took a corporal 

with them, and brought this prisoner before Napoleon 

111 



who learned to his great satisfaction that Tchitchakoff 
with his main force was before Borisow to prevent 
the passage of the French, and that at Studianka there 
was only a small detachment of light troops. 

It was necessary to take advantage of these fortunate 
circumstances. But the bridges were not ready. The 
brave General Corbineau with his cavalry brigade 
crossed the river under the above-described difficulties, 
and established himself in the woods. Napoleon 
mounted a battery of 40 cannons on the left shore, and 
now the French could flatter themselves to be masters 
of the right shore while the bridges were made, and 
that their whole army would be able to cross. 
Napoleon's star seemed to brighten again, the officers 
grouped around him, saluting with expressions of joy, 
such as they had not shown for a long time. 

All was now depending on the completion of the 
bridges, for there were two to be constructed, each 
600 feet in length; one on the left for wagons, the 
other, on the right, for infantry and cavalry. A hun- 
dred pontooneers had gone into the water and with 
the aid of little floats built for this purpose, had com- 
menced the fixation of the trestles. The water was 
freezing and formed ice crusts around their shoulders, 
arms, and legs, ice crusts which adhered to the flesh 
and caused great pain. They suffered without com- 
plaining, without appearing to be affected, so great 
was their ardor. The river at that point was 300 feet 
wide and with 23 trestles for each bridge the two 
shores could be united. In order to transport first the 
troops, all efforts were concentrated on the construc- 
tion of the bridge to the right — that is, the one for 
infantry and cavalry — and at i o'clock in the afternoon 

it was ready. 

112 



About 9 thousand men of the corps of Marshal 
Oudinot passed over the first bridge and under great 
precautions took two cannons along. Arrived on the 
other side, Oudinot faced some troops of infantry 
which General Tschaplitz, the commander of the 
advance guard of Tchitchakoflf, had brought there. 
The engagement was very lively but of short duration. 
The French killed 200 men of the enemy and were able 
to establish themselves in a good position, from where 
they could cover the passage. Time was given now 
for the passage of enough troops to meet Tchitchakoff, 
during the rest of the day, the 26th. and the succeeding 
night. Concerning many details I have to refer to 
Thiers' description. 

At 4 o'clock in the afternoon the second bridge was 
completed. Napoleon, on the Studianka side, yet 
supervised everything ; he wanted to remain among the 
last to cross the bridge. General Eble, without himself 
taking a moment of rest, had one-half the number of 
his pontooneers rest on straw while the other half took 
up the painful task of guarding the bridges, of doing 
police duty, and of making repairs in case of accidents, 
until they were relieved by the others. On this day 
the infantry guards and what remained of cavalry- 
guards marched over the bridge, followed by the 
artillery train. 

Unfortunately, the left bridge, intended for vehicles, 
shook too much under the enormous weight of wagons 
following one another without interruption. Pressed 
as they were, the pontooneers had not had time to 
shape the timber forming the path, they had to use 
wood as they found it, and in order to deaden the 
rumbling of the wagons they had put moss, hemp, 
straw — in fact, everything they could gather in 

113 



Studianka — into the crevices. But the horses removed 
this kind of Utter with their feet, rendering the surface 
of the path very rough, so that it had formed undula- 
tions, and at 8 o'clock in the evening three trestles gave 
v^ay and fell, together with the wagons which they 
carried, into the Beresina. The heroic pontooneers 
went to work again, going into the water which was so 
cold that ice immediately formed anew where it had 
been broken. With their axes they had to cut holes 
into the ice to place new trestles six, seven and even 
eight feet deep into the river were the bridge had given 
way. At II o'clock the bridge was secure again. 

General Eble, who had always one relief at work 
while the other was asleep, took no rest himself. He 
had extra trestles made in case of another accident. 
At 2 o'clock in the morning three trestles of the left 
bridge, that is the one for the vehicles, gave way, un- 
fortunately in the middle of the current, where the 
water had a depth of seven or eight feet. This time 
the pontooneers had to accomplish their difficult task 
in the darkness. The men, shaking from cold and 
starving, could not work any more. The venerable 
General Eble, who was not young as they were and had 
not taken rest as they had, suffered more than they did, 
but he had the moral superiority and spoke to them, 
appealing to their devotedness, told them of the certain 
disaster which would annihilate the whole army if they 
did not repair the bridges ; and his address made a deep 
impression. With supreme self-denial they went to 
work again. General Lauriston, who had been sent by 
the emperor to learn the cause of the new accident, 
pressed Eble's hand and, shedding tears, said to him: 
For God's sake, hasten ! Without showing impatience, 
Eble, who generally had the roughness of a strong and 

114 



proud soul, answered with kindness : You see what 
we are doing, and he turned to his men to encourage, 
to direct them, and notwithstanding his age — he was 
54 years old — he plunged into that icy water, which 
those young men were hardy able to endure (and this 
fact is stated by all the historians whose works I have 
read). At 6 o'clock in the morning (November 27th.) 
this second accident had been repaired, the artillery 
train could pass again. 

The bridge to the right — for infantry — did not have 
to endure the same kind of shaking up as the other 
bridge, and did not for one moment get out of order. 
If the stragglers and fugitives had obeyed all could 
have crossed during the night from November 26th. 
to November 27th. But the attraction of some barns, 
some straw to lie on, some eatables found at Studianka, 
had retained a good many on this side of the river. 
The swamps surrounding the Beresina were frozen, 
which was a great advantage, enabling the people to 
walk over them. On these frozen swamps had been 
lighted thousands of fires, and 10 thousand or 15 
thousand individuals had established themselves 
around them and did not want to leave. Soon they 
should bitterly regret the loss of a precious oppor- 
tunity. 

In the morning, on November 27th., Napoleon 
crossed the Beresina, together with all who were at- 
tached to his headquarters, and selected for his new 
headquarters the little village Zawnicky, on the other 
side of the Beresina. In front of him was the corps 
of Oudinot. All day long he was on horseback per- 
sonally to hasten the passage of detachments of the 
army, somewhat over 5 thousand men under arms. 

Toward the end of the day the first corps arrived, 

115 



under Davout, who since Krasnoe had again com- 
manded the rear guard. This was the only corps 
which still had some inilitary appearance. 

The day of November 27th. was occupied to cross 
the Beresina and to prepare for a desperate resistance, 
for the Russians could no longer be deceived as to the 
location of the bridges. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon a 
third accident happened, again on the bridge to the 
left. It was soon repaired, but the vehicles arrived in 
great numbers, and all were pressing forward in such 
a way that the gendarmes had extraordinary difficulties 
to enforce some order. 

The 9th. corps, that of Marshal Victor, had taken 
a position between Borisow and Studianka, in order to 
protect the army at the latter place. It had been 
foreseen that the crossing would be little interfered 
with during the first two days, the 26th. and 27th., 
because Tchitchakoff was as yet ignorant of the real 
points elected for the bridges, expecting to find the 
French army below Borisow on the other side of the 
Beresina. Wittgenstein and Kutusoff had not yet had 
time to unite and did not sufficiently press the French. 

Napoleon had good reasons to expect that the 28th. 
would be the decisive day. He was resolved to save 
the army or to perish with it. Taking the greatest 
pains to deceive Tchitchakofif as long as possible he 
ordered Marchal Victor to leave the division Par- 
touneaux, which had been reduced by marches and 
fights from 12 thousand to 4 thousand combatants, at 
Borisow. Victor with 9 thousand men and 700 to 800 
horses was to cover Studianka. 

These 9 thousand were the survivors of 24 thousand 
with whom Victor had left Smolensk to join Oudinot 
on the Oula. During one month's marching and 

116 



in various engagements lo thousand to ii thousand 
had been lost. The bearing, however, of those who 
survived was excellent, and seeing what was left of 
the grand army, the glory of which had, not long ago, 
been the object of their jealousy, in its present con- 
dition, they were stricken with pity and asked their 
oppressed comrades who had almost lost their pride 
as a result of the misery, what calamity could have 
befallen them? You will soon be the same as we are, 
sadly answered the victors of Smolensk and Borodino. 

The hour of the supreme crisis had come. The 
enemy, having now learned the truth, came to attack 
the French when many of them had not yet crossed 
the Beresina and were divided between the two sides 
of the river. Wittgenstein, who with 3 thousand men 
had followed the corps of Victor, was behind the latter 
between Borisow and Studianka, and ready with all 
his might to throw Victor into the Beresina. Alto- 
gether, including the forces of Tchitchakoff, there 
were about ']2 thousand Russians, without counting 
30 thousand men of Kutusoif in the rear, ready to 
fall on Victor's 12 thousand to 13 thousand and 
Oudinot's 7 thousand or 8 thousand of the guards; 
28 thousand to 30 thousand French were divided 
between the two shores of the Beresina hampered by 
40 thousand stragglers, to fight, during the difficult 
operation of crossing the Beresina, with ']2 thousand 
partly in front, partly in the rear. 

This terrible struggle began in the evening of the 
27th. The unfortunate French division of Partou- 
neaux, the best of the three of Victor's corps, had 
received orders from Napoleon to remain before 
Borisow during the 27th., in order to deceive, as long 
as possible, and to detain Tchitchakoff. In this posi- 

117 



tion Partouneaux was separated from his corps which, 
as we have seen, was concentrated around Studianka, 
by three miles of wood and swamps. As could be easily 
foreseen, Partouneaux was cut off by the arrival of 
the troops of Platow, Miloradovitch, and YermalofT, 
who had followed the French on the road from 
Orscha to Borisow. In the evening of the 27th. 
Partouneaux recognized his desperate position. With 
the immense dangers threatening him were combined 
the hideous embarrassment of several thousand 
stragglers who, believing in the passage below 
Borisow, had massed at that point, with their baggage, 
awaiting the construction of the bridge. The better to 
deceive the enemy they had been left in their error, and 
now they were destined to be sacrificed, together with 
the division of Partouneaux, on account of the 
terrible necessity to deceive Tchitchakoff. 

When the bullets came from all sides, the confusion 
soon reached the climax; the three little brigades of 
Partouneaux forming for defence found themselves 
entangled with several thousand stragglers and 
fugitives who clamorously threw themselves into their 
ranks ; the women of the mass, with baggage, especially 
with their frightful, piercing cries, characterized this 
scene of desolation. General Partouneaux decided 
to extricate himself, to open a way or to perish. He 
was with a thousand men against 40 thousand. Several 
challenges to surrender he refused, and kept on fight- 
ing. The enemy, likewise exhausted, suspended firing 
toward midnight, being certain to take the last of this 
handful of braves who resisted so heroically in the 
morning. With daybreak the Russian generals again 
challenged General Partouneaux, who was standing 

upright in the snow with the 400 or 500 of his brigade, 

118 



remonstrating witli him, and he, with desperation in 
his soul, surrendered. The other two brigades of his 
division that had been separated from him also laid 
down their arms. The Russians took about 2 thousand 
prisoners, that is, the survivors of Partouneaux's 
division of 4 thousand, only one battalion of 300 men 
had succeeded, during the darkness of the night, in 
making its escape and reaching Studianka. 

The army at Studianka had heard, during this cruel 
night, the sound of the cannonade and fusillade from 
the direction of Borisow. Napoleon and Victor were 
in great anxiety; the latter thought that the measure 
taken, i. e., the sacrifice of his best division, of 4 
thousand men who would have been of great value, 
had been unjustifiable, because after the crossing had 
begun on the 26th. it was no longer possible to deceive 
the enemy. 

The night was passed in cruel suspense, but being 
the prey of sorrows of so many kinds the French 
could hardly pay due attention to the many new ones 
which presented themselves at every moment. The 
silence which reigned on the morning of the 28th. 
indicated the catastrophe of the division Partouneaux. 

The firing now began on the two sides of the 
Beresina, on the right shore against the troops that 
had crossed, on the left against those covering the 
passage of the rear of the army. From this moment 
on nothing was thought of but fight. The cannonade 
and fusillade soon became extremely violent, and 
Napoleon, on horseback, incessantly riding from one 
point to another, assumed that Oudinot resisted 
Tchitchakoff while Eble continued to care for the 
bridges, and that Victor, who was fighting Wittgen- 
stein, was not thrown into the icy floods of the 

119 



Beresina together with the masses which had not yet 
crossed. 

Although the firing was terrible on all sides and 
thousands were killed on this lugubrious field; the 
French resisted on both banks of the river. 

For the description of this battle I desire to refer 
to Thiers' great work. Taking all circumstances into 
consideration, it did the greatest honor to Napoleon's 
guns, to the valor of his generals and of his soldiers. 

The confusion was frightful among the masses that 
had neglected to cross in time, and those who had 
arrived too late for the opportunity. Many, ignoring 
that the first bridge was reserved for pedestrians and 
horsemen, the second for wagons, crowded with 
delirious impatience upon the second bridge. The 
pontooneers on guard at the entrance of the brdige to 
the right were ordering the vehicles to the one on the 
left, which was 600 feet farther down. This precau- 
tion was an absolute necessity, because the bridge to 
the right could not endure the weight of the wagons. 
Those who were directed by the pontooneers to go to 
the other bridge had the greatest difficulty to pass 
through the compact masses pressing and pushing to 
enter the structure. A terrible struggle! Opposing 
currents of people paralyzed all progress. The bullets 
of the enemy, striking into this dense crowd, produced 
fearful furrows and cries of terror from the fugitives; 
women with children, many on wagons, added to the 
horror. All pressed, all pushed; the stronger ones 
trampled on those who had lost their foothold, and 
killed many of the latter. Men on horseback were 
crushed, together with their horses, many of the ani- 
mals becoming unmanageable, shot forward, kicked, 
reared, turned into the crowd and gained a little space 

120 



by throwing people down into the river; but soon 
the space filled up again, and the mass of people was 
as dense as before. 

This pressing forward and backward, the cries, the 
bullets striking into the helpless crowd, presented an 
atrocious scene — the climax of that forever odious 
and senseless expedition of Napoleon. 

The excellent General Eble, whose heart broke at 
this spectacle, tried in vain to establish a little order. 
Placing himself at the head of the bridge he addressed 
the multitude; but it was only by means of the 
bayonet that at last some improvement was brought 
about, and some women, children, and wounded were 
saved. Some historians have stated that the French 
themselves fired cannon shots into the crowd, but this 
is not mentioned by Thiers. This panic was the cause 
that more than half the number of those perished who 
otherwise could have crossed. Many threw themselves, 
or were pushed, into the water and drowned. And 
this terrible conflict among the masses having lasted 
all day, far from diminishing, it became more horrible 
with the progress of the battle between Victor and 
Wittgenstein. The description of this battle I omit, 
referring again to Thiers, confining myself to give 
some figures. Of 700 to 800 men of General 
Fournier's cavalry hardly 300 survived; of Marshal 
Victor's infantry, hardy 5 thousand. Of all these 
brave men, mostly Dutchmen, Germans^ and Polanders, 
who had been sacrified there was quite a number of 
wounded who might have been saved, but who had 
perished for want of all means of transportation. The 
Russians lost 10 thousand to 11 thousand. 

This double battle on the two shores of the 
Beresina is one of the most glorious in the history of 

12X 



France; 28 thousand against 72 thousand Russians. 
These 28 thousand could have been taken or 
annihilated to the last man, and it was almost a miracle 
that even a part of the army escaped this disaster. 

With nightfall some calm came over this place of 
carnage and confusion. 

On the next morning Napoleon had to recommence, 
this time not to retreat, but to flee; he had to wrest 
from the enemy the 5 thousand men of Marshal Vic- 
tor's corps, Victor's artillery and as many as possible 
of those unfortunates who had not employed the two 
days by crossing. Napoleon ordered Marshal Victor 
to cross during the night with his corps and with all 
his artillery, and to take with him as many as possible 
of the disbanded and of the refugees who were still 
on that other side of the river. 

Here we novv^ learn of a singular flux and reflux of 
the frightened masses. While the cannon had roared, 
every one wanted to cross but could not, now when 
with nightfall the firing had ceased they did not 
think any more of the danger of hesitation, not of the 
cruel lesson which they had learned during the day. 
They only wanted to keep away from the scene of 
horror which the crossing of the bridge had presented. 
It was a great task to force these unfortunates to cross 
the bridges before they were set on fire, a measure 
which was an absolute necessity and which was to be 
executed on the next morning. 

The first work for Eble's pontooneers was now to 
clear the avenues of the bridges from the mass of the 
dead, men and horses, of demoHshed wagons, and of 
all sorts of impediments. This task could be accom- 
plished only in part; the mass of cadavers was too 

great for the time given for the removal of all of them, 

122 



and those who crossed had to walk over flesh and 
blood. 

In the night, from 9 o'clock to midnight, Marshal 
Victor crossed the Beresina, thereby exposing himself 
to the enemy, who, however, was too tired to think of 
fighting. He brought his artillery over the left bridge, 
his infantry over the right one, and with the exception 
of the wounded and two pieces of artillery, all his men 
and all his material safely reached the other side. The 
crossing accomplished, he erected a battery to hold 
the Russians in check and to prevent them from cross- 
ing the bridges. 

There remained several thousand stragglers and 
fugitives on this side of the Beresina who could have 
crossed during the night but had refused to do so. 
Napoleon had given orders to destroy the bridges at 
daybreak and had sent word to General Eble and 
Marshal Victor to employ all means in order to hasten 
the passage of those unfortunates. General Eble, ac- 
companied by some officers, himself w^ent to their 
bivouacs and implored them to flee, emphasizing that 
he was going to destroy the bridges. But it was in 
vain; lying comfortably on straw or branches around 
great fires, devouring horse meat, they were afraid of 
the crowding on the bridge during the night, they 
hesitated to give up a sure bivouac for an uncertain 
one, they feared that the frost, which was very 
severe, would kill them in their enfeebled condition. 

Napoleon's orders to General Eble was to destroy 
the bridges at 7 o'clock in the morning of November 
29th., but this noble man, as humane as he was brave, 
hesitated. He had been awake that night, the sixth 
of these vigils in succession, incessantly trying to ac- 
celerate the passing of the bridge; with daybreak, 

123 



however, there was no need any more to stimulate the 
unfortunates, they all were only too anxious now. 
They all ran when the enemy became visible on the 
heights. 

Eble had waited till 8 o'clock when the order for the 
destruction of the bridges was repeated to him, and 
in sight of the approaching enemy it was his duty not 
to lose one moment. However, trusting to the artillery 
of Victor, he still tried to save some people. His soul 
suffered cruelly during this time of hesitation to 
execute an order the necessity of which he knew only 
too well. Finally, having waited until almost 9 o'clock 
when the enemy approached on the double quick, he 
decided with broken heart, turning his eyes away from 
the frightful scene, to set fire to the structures. Those 
unfortunates who were on the bridges threw them- 
selves into the water, every one made a supreme effort 
to escape the Cossacks or captivity, which latter they 
feared more than death. 

The Cossacks came up galloping, thrusting their 
lances into the midst of the crowd; they killed some, 
gathered the others, and drove them forward, like a 
herd of sheep, toward the Russian army. It is not 
exactly known if there were 6 thousand, 7 thousand or 
8 thousand individuals, men, women, and children, 
who were taken by the Cossacks. 

The army was profoundly affected by this 

spectacle and nobody more so than General Eble who, 

in devoting himself to the salvation of all, could well 

say that he was the savior of all who had not perished 

or been taken prisoner in the days of the Beresina. 

Of the 50 thousand, armed or unarmed, who had 

crossed there was not a single one who did not owe his 

life and liberty to him and his pontooneers. But the 

124 



400 pontooneers who had worked in the water, paid 
with their lives for this noblest deed in the history of 
wars ; they all died within a short time. General Eble 
survived his act of bravery only three weeks; he died 
in Koenigsberg on the 21st. day of December, 1812. 

This is an incomplete sketch of the immortal event 
of the Beresina, full of psychological interest and 
therefore fit to be inserted in the medical history of 
Napoleon's campaign in Russia. 

To a miraculous accident, the arrival of Corbineau, 
the noble devotedness of Eble, the desperate resistance 
of Victor and his soldiers, to the energy of Oudinot, 
Ney, Legrand, Maison, Zayonchek, Doumerc, and, 
finally, to his own sure and profound decision, 
his recognition of the true steps to be taken, Napoleon 
owed the possibility that he could escape after a 
bloody scene, the most humiliating, the most crushing 
disaster. 



125 



TWO EPISODES 

Surgeon Huber of the Wuerttembergians, writes to 
his friend, Surgeon Henri de Roos, who settled in 
Russia after the campaign of 1812, how he crossed 
the Beresina, and in this connection he describes the 
following dreadful episode: 

"A young woman of twenty-five, the wife of a 
French colonel killed a few days before in one of the 
engagements, was near me, within a short distance 
of the bridge we were to cross. Oblivious of all 
that went on about her, she seemed wholly en- 
grossed in her daughter, a beautiful child of four, 
that she held in the saddle before her. She made 
several unsuccessful attempts to cross the bridge and 
was driven back every time, at which she seemed 
overwhelmed with blank despair. She did not weep; 
she would gaze heavenward, then fix her eyes upon 
her daughter, and once I heard her say : ' O God, how 
wretched I am, I cannot even pray !' Almost at the 
same moment a bullet struck her horse and another 
one penetrated her left thigh above the knee. With 
the deliberation of mute despair she took up the child 
that was crying, kissed it again and again ; then, using 
the blood-stained garter removed from her fractured 
limb, she strangled the poor little thing and sat down 
with it, wrapped in her arms and hugged close to her 
bosom, beside her fallen horse. Thus she awaited 

her end, without uttering a single word, and before 

126 



long she was trampled down by the riders making 
for the bridge." 

The great surgeon Larrey tells how he nearly per- 
ished at the crossing of the Beresina, how he went 
over the bridge twice to save his equipment and sur- 
gical instruments, and how he was vainly attempting 
to break through the crowd on the third trip, when, 
at the mention of his name, every one proffered as- 
sistance, and he was carried along by soldier after 
soldier to the end of the bridge. 

He has related the incident in a letter to his wife, 
dated from Leipzig, March nth., 1813. " Ribes," 
says he — Ribes was one of Napoleon's physicians — 
" was right when he said that in the midst of the 
army, and especially of the Imperial guard, I could 
not lose my life. Indeed, I owe my life to the sol- 
diers. Some of them flew to my rescue when the 
Cossacks surrounded me and would have killed or 
taken me prisoner. Others hastened to lift me and 
help me on when I sank in the snow from physical 
exhaustion. Others, again, seeing me suffer from 
hunger, gave me such provisions as they had; while 
as soon as I joined their bivouac they would all make 
room and cover me with straw or with their own 
clothes." 

At Larrey's name, all the soldiers would rise and 
cheer with a friendly respect. 

" Any one else in my place," writes Larrey further, 
" would have perished on the bridge of the Beresina, 
crossing it as I was doing, for the third time and at 
the most dangerous moment. But no sooner did they 
recognize me than they grasped me with a vigorous 
hold, and sent me along from hand to hand, like a 
bundle of clothes, to the end of the bridge." 

127 



WILNA 

The threatening barrier had been surmounted, and 
on went the march to Wilna, without any possibihty 
of a day's rest, because the miserable remainder of the 
French army was still followed by light Russian 
troops. 

During the first days after the crossing of the 
Beresina the supply of food had improved, it was 
better indeed than at any time during the retreat. 
They passed through villages which had not suffered 
from the war, in which the barns were well filled with 
grain and with feed for the horses, and there lived 
rich Jews who could sell whatever the soldiers needed. 
Unfortunately, however, this improved condition 
lasted only a few days, from November 30th. to De- 
cember 4th., and before Wilna was reached the want 
was felt again and made itself felt the more on account 
of the most intense cold which had set in. 

During the few good days the soldiers had eaten 
roast pork, and all kinds of vegetables, in consequence 
their weakened digestive tract had been overtaxed so 
that diarrhoea became prevalent, a most frightful con- 
dition during a march on the road, with a temperature 
of 25 deg. below zero, Reaumur (about 25 deg. 
below zero, Fahrenheit). 

The 6th. of December was a frightful day, although 

the cold had not yet reached its climax which happened 

128 



on the 7th. and 8th. of December, namely 28 deg. 
below zero, Reaumur (31 degrees below zero, Fahren- 
heit). 

Holzhausen gives a graphic description of the sup- 







The Gate of Wilna." 



ernatural silence which reigned and which reminded 
of the silence in the arctic regions. There was not the 
slightest breeze, the snowflakes fell vertically, crystal- 

129 



clear, the snow blinded the eyes, the sun appeared like 
a red hot ball with a halo, the sign of greatest cold. 

The details of the descriptions which Holzhausen 
has collected from old papers surpass by far all we 
have learned from von Scherer's and Beaupre's 
writings. And all that Holzhausen relates is verified 
by names of absolute reliability; it verifies the 
accounts of the two authors named. 

General von Roeder, one of the noblest of the Ger- 
man officers in Napoleon's army — a facsimile of one 
of his letters is given in Holzhausen's book — says 
about the murderous 7th. of December : '' Pilgrims of 
the Grand Army, who had withstood many a severe 
frost indeed, dropped like flies, and of those who were 
well nourished, well clothed — many of these being of 
the reserve corps having but recently come from 
Wilna to join the retreating army, — countless num- 
bers fell exactly like the old exhausted warriors who 
had dragged themselves from Moscow to this place." 

The reserve troops of which Roeder speaks were 
the division Loison, the last great body of men that 
had followed the army. They had been in Koenigs- 
berg and had marched from there to Wilna during the 
month of November, had remained in the latter place 
until December 4th., when they were sent to protect 
the retreating soldiers and the Emperor himself, on 
leaving the wreck of his once grand army at Smorgoni 
on December 5th. 

These troops who thus far had not sustained any 
hardships, came directly from the warm quarters of 
Wilna into the terrible cold. 

It was quite frightful, says Roeder, to see these men, 
who a moment before had been talking .quite lively, 
drop dead as if struck by lightning. 

130 



D. Geissler, a Weimaranian surgeon, renders ja 
similar report and adds that in some cases these 
victims suffered untold agonies before they died. 

Lieutenant Jacobs states that some said good bye to 
their comrades and laid down along the road to die, 
that others acted like maniacs, cursed their fate, fell 
down, rose again, and fell down once more, never to 
rise again. Cases like the latter have been described 
also by First Lieutenant von Schauroth. 

Under these circumstances, says Holzhausen, it 
appears almost incomprehensible that there were men 
who withstood a misery which surpassed all human 
dimensions. And still there were such; who by man- 
fully bearing these suft'erings, set to others a good ex- 
ample ; there were whole troops who, to protect others 
in pertinacious rear guard fights, opposed the on- 
pressing enemy. 

Wonderful examples of courage and self-denial gave 
some women, the wife of a Sergeant-Major Martens, 
who had followed the army, and a Mrs. Easier, who 
was always active, preparing some food while her 
husband with others was lying exhausted at the camp 
fire, and who seldom spoke, never complained. This 
poor woman lost a son, a drummer boy, who had been 
wounded at Smolensk. She as well as her husband 
perished in Wilna. 

Sergeant Toenges dragged a blind comrade along — I 
shall not leave him, he said. Grenadiers, sitting around 
a fire, had pity on him and tried to relieve his suffer- 
ings. Many such examples are enumerated in Holz- 
hausen's book. 

Our highest admiration is due to the conduct of the 
brave troops of the rear guard who fought the Rus- 
sians, who sacrificed themselves for the sake of the 

131 



whole, and, like at Krasnoe and at the Beresina, for 
their disbanded comrades. 

The rearguard was at first commanded by Ney, then, 
after the 3rd. of December, by Marshal Victor; after 
the dissolution of Victor's corps at Smorgoni and Kra- 
powna, by Loison and, finally, near Wilna, by Wrede 
with his Bavarians. 

Count Hochberg has given a classical description of 
the Hfe in the rear guard; it is the most elevating de- 
scription of greatness, of human magnanimity, and it 
fills us with admiration for the noble, the brave 
soldier. 

Interesting is the engagement at Malodeszno. A 
certain spell hangs over this fight; here perished two 
Saxon regiments that had gloriously fought at the 
Beresina. 

The scene was a romantic park with the castle of 
Count Oginsky where Napoleon had had his headquar- 
ters on the preceding day, and from where he dated 
his for ever memorable 29th. bulletin m which he told 
the world the ruin of his army. 

Toward 2 o'clock in the afternoon the enemy at- 
tacked the division of Girard who was supported by 
Count Hochberg. Then the Russians attacked the 
park itself. The situation was very serious, because 
the Badensian troops under Hochberg had only a few 
cartridges and could not properly answer the fire of 
the enemy. Night came, and the darkness, writes a 
Badensian sergeant, was of great advantage to us, for 
the Russians stood against a very small number, the 
proportion being one battalion to 100 men. Count 
Hochberg led his brigade, attacking with the bayonet, 
and nearly became a victim of his courage. The Baden- 
sian troops drove the enemy away, but they themselves 

132 



received the death blow. Count Hochberg said he had 
no soldiers left whom he could command. 

And now it was the division Loison which formed 
the rear guard. 

On the 5th. of December this division had come to 
Smorgoni where Napoleon took leave from his mar- 
shals and from his army, after he had entrusted Murat 
with the command. 

The division Loison, during the eventful night from 
December 5th. to 6th., had rendered great services. 
Without the presence of Loison's soldiers Napoleon 
would have fallen into the hands of his enemies, and 
the wheel of the history of the world would have 
taken a different turn. 

Dr. Geissler describes Napoleon, whom he saw at a 
few paces' distance on the day of his departure, and 
he VN^rites ''the personality of this extraordinary man, 
his physiognomy with the stamp of supreme originality, 
the remembrance of his powerful deeds by which he 
moved the world during his time, carried us away in 
involuntary admiration. Was not the voice which we 
heard the same which resounded all over Europe, 
which declared wars, decided battles, regulated the 
fate of empires, elevated or extinguished the glory of 
so many." 

It may appear strange that in a medical history I 
record these details, but I give them because they show 
how the personality of Napoleon had retained its magic 
influence even in that critical moment: 

The soldiers wanted to salute him with their Vive 
VEmpereur! but, in consideration of the assumed 
incognito of the Imperator without an army, it was 
interdicted. 

Up to this day Napoleon has been blamed for his 

133 



step, to leave the army. At the Beresina he had re- 
fused with pride the offer of some Poles to take him 
over the river and to bring him safely to Wilna. Now 
there was nothing more to save of the army, and 
other duties called him peremptorily away. If we 
study well the situation, the complications which had 
arisen from the catastrophe and which were to arise 
in the following year, we must in justice to him admit 
that he was obHged to go in order to create another 
army. 

It is not a complete history which I am writing; 
otherwise it would be my duty to speak of the deep 
impression, the dramatic effect, which Napoleon's de- 
parture had made on his soldiers. In presenting some- 
what extensively some details of those days I simply 
wished to show who they were and how many brave 
men there were who had been spared for the atrocities 
of Wilna. 

If I were to do justice to the voluminous material 
before me of the bravery of the soldiers on their march 
from the Beresina to Wilna I would have to write a 
whole book on this part of the history alone. 



Once more the hope of the unfortunates should be 
disappointed in a most cruel way. They knew of fresh 
troops and of rich magazines in Wilna. But only 2 
thousand men were left of the Loison division, not 
enough to defend the place against the enemy whose 
coming was to be expected. 

The provisions, however, were stored in the maga- 
zines, and there were, according to French accounts, 
forty day rations of bread, flour and crackers for 100 

thousand men, cattle for 36 days, 9 million rations of 

134 



wine and brandy ; in addition, vegetables and food for 
horses, as well as clothing in abundance. 

Unfortunately, the governor of Wilna, the Duke of 
Bassano, was only a diplomat, entirely incompetent to 
handle the situation, which required mihtary talent. 

Unfortunate had also been Napoleon's choice of 
Murat. On August 31st., 181 7, he said in conversation 
with Gourgaud, " I have made a great mistake in en- 
trusting Murat with the highest command of the 
army, because he was the most incompetent man to act 
successfully under such circumstances." 

No preparations were made for the entering troops, 
no quarters had been assigned for them when they 
came. 

And they came on the 9th. ; most horrible details 
have been recorded of this day when the disbanded 
mass crowded the gate. 

Wilna was not only not in ruins, but it was the only 
large city which had not been abandoned by its inhabi- 
tants. But these inhabitants shut their doors before 
the entering soldiers. Only some officers and some 
Germans, the latter among the families of German me- 
chanics, found an abode in the houses. Some Poles 
were hospitable, also some Lithuanians, and even the 
Jews. 

All writers complain of the avidity and cruelty of 
the latter; they mixed am^ong the soldiers to obtain 
whatever they had saved from the pillage of Moscow. 
These Jews had everything the soldier was in need of, 
bread and brandy, delicacies and even horses and 
sleighs ; in their restaurants all who had money or 
valuables could be accommodated. And these places 
were crowded with soldiers who feasted at the well 
supplied ,tables, and even hilarity developed among 

135 



these men saved from the ice fields of Russia. During 
the night every space was occupied as a resting place. 

While those who could afford it enjoyed all the good 
things of which they had been deprived so long, the 
poor soldiers in the streets were in great misery. The 
doors being shut, they entered the houses by force and 
illtreated the inhabitants who on the next day took a 
bitter revenge. 

Even the rich magazines had remained closed, tedi- 
ous formalities had to be observed, the carrying out of 
which was an impossibility since the whole army was 
disbanded. No regiment had kept together, no detach- 
ment could be selected to present vouchers for receiv- 
ing rations. 

Lieutenant Jacobs gives an illustration of the con- 
dition : " Orders had been given to receive rations for 
four days. Colonel von Egloffstein in the evening of 
the 9th. sent Lieutenant Jacobs with 100 men to the 
bread magazine to secure as much as possible, and as 
this magazine was at some distance, and as Cossacks 
had already entered the city, he ordered 25 armed men 
to accompany the hundred, who, naturally enough, 
were not armed. The commissary of the magazine 
refused to hand out bread without a written order of 
the commissaire-ordonateur ; the lieutenant therefore 
notified him that he would take by force what he 
needed for his regiment. And with his 25 carabiniers 
he had to fight for the bread." 

Finally the pressing need led to violence. During 
the night of the loth. the desperate soldiers, aided by 
inhabitants, broke into the magazines, at first into those 
containing clothing, then they opened the provision 
stores, throwing flour bags and loaves of bread into 
the street where the masses fought for these missiles. 

136 



And when the Hquor depots were broken into, the 
crowd forced its way in with howls. They broke the 
barrels, and wild orgies took place until the building 
took fire and many of the revellers became the victims 
of the flames. 

While this pillaging went on the market place of 
Wilna was the scene of events not less frightful. A 
detachment of Loison's division, obedient to their duty, 
had congregated there, stacked arms and, in order to 
warm themselves to the best of their ability — the 
temperature was 30 deg. below zero R. (37 deg. below 
zero F.) — and to thaw the frozen bread, had lighted 
a fire. I cannot describe the fight among these sol- 
diers for single pieces of bread ; they were too horrid. 

This night ended, and in the morning the cannon 
was heard again. 

An early attack had been expected, and perspicacious 
officers had taken advantage of the few hours of rest 
to urge their men to prepare for the last march to the 
near frontier. Count Hochberg implored his officers 
to follow this advice, but the fatigues and sickness they 
had undergone, their frozen limbs and the threat of 
greater misery, made most of them refuse to heed his 
entreaties. Thus Hochberg lost 74 of his best and 
most useful officers who remained in Wilna and died 
there. Similar attempts were made in other quarters. 
Many of those addressed laughed sneeringly. This 
sneering I shall never forget, says Lieutenant von 
Hailbronner, who escaped while the enemy was en- 
tering. Death on the road to Kowno was easier, 
after all, than dying slowly in the hospitals of Wilna. 

On the loth., in the morning, the Russians entered, 
and the Cossacks ran their lances through every one 
in their way. 

137 



There were fights in the streets, the troops of the 
division Loison fought the Russians. 

Old Sergeant Picart, of the old guard, on hearing 
the drum, struck his comrade Bourgogne, the writer 
of some memoirs of the campaign, on the shoulder, 








saying: " Forward, comrade, we are of the old guard, 
we must be the first under arms." And Bourgogne 
went along, although sick and wounded. 

German and French bravery vied with each other 

138 



on the loth. of December. Ney and Loison along 
with Wrede. The latter, on the day previous, had 
come to the house of the marshal to offer him a small 
escort of cavalry if he would leave Wilna. Ney 
pointing to the mass of soldiers who had to be pro- 
tected, answered : " All the Cossacks in the world 
shall not bring me out of this city to-night." 

Ney and Wrede left with their troops. 

Woe to those who had remained, their number was 
about lo thousand, besides 5 thousand sick in the 
hospitals. 

According to Roeder, 500 were murdered in the 
streets on this day, partly by Cossacks, partly by 
Jews, the latter revenging themselves for ill treat- 
ment. 

All reports, and they are numerous, of Germans, 
French and also Russians, speak of the cruelty of the 
Jews of Wilna. We must not forget, however, the 
provocations under which they had to suffer, nor 
how they, in supplying soldiers with eatables and 
clothing, saved many who otherwise would have 
perished. 

von Lossberg says that Christian people of Wilna 
have also taken part in the massacre, and only the 
Poles did not participate. 

The Cossacks began their bloody work early in the 
morning. 

Awful cries of the tortured were heard in the 
Wuerttembergian hospital, telling the sick who were 
lying there what they themselves had to expect from 
the entering enemies. 

Those who had remained in Smolensk and 
Moscow after the armed soldiers had departed were 
at once massacred. In Wilna likewise many were 

139 



murdered, but the greater number — many thousands 
— (other circumstances did not permit to do away 
with all these prisoners in the same way) perished 
after days or weeks of sickness and privations of all 
kind. 

Wilna's convents could tell of it if their walls could 
speak. 

Dr. Geissler narrates that the prisoners in the Ba- 
silius monastery into which soldiers of all nationalities 
had been driven, during 13 days received only a little 
hardtack, but neither wood nor a drop of water; they 
had to quench their thirst with the snow which covered 
the corpses in the yard. 

The Enghshman Wilson, of whom I have spoken 
already, who had come to Wilna with Kutusow's army, 
says : '' The Basilius monastery, transformed into a 
prison, offered a terrible sight — 7,500 corpses were 
piled up in the corridors, and corpses were also in 
other parts of the building, the broken windows and 
the holes in the walls were plugged with feet, legs, 
hands, heads, trunks, just as they would fit in the 
openings to keep out the cold air. The putrefying 
flesh spread a terrible stench." 

(Carpon, a French Surgeon-Major who was with 
the army in Wilna, has described the events in a paper 
" Les Morts de Wilna!' I cannot quote from his 
writings because he gives impossible statistics and con- 
tradicts himself in his narrations.) 

Yelin speaks of a hospital in which all the inmates 
had been murdered by the Cossacks. He himself was 
in a Wuerttembergian hospital and describes his ex- 
perience : '' Terrible was the moment when the door 
was burst open. The monsters came in and distributed 

themselves all over the house. We gave them all we 

140 



had and implored them on our knees to have pity, but 
all in vain. ' Schelma Franzuski,' they answered, at 
the same time they beat us with their kantchous, 
kicked us unmercifully with their feet, and as new 
Cossacks came in all the time, we were finally deprived 
of all our clothing and beaten like dogs. Even the ban- 
dages of the poor wounded were torn off in search of 
hidden money or valuables. Lieutenant Kuhn (a piece 
of his cranium had been torn away at Borodino) 
was searched; he fell down like dead and it took a 
long time and much pain to bring him to life again." 

Lieutenant von Soden was beaten with hellish 
cruelty on his sore feet and gangraenous toes so that 
they bled. When nothing more could be found on 
the sick and wounded they were left lying on the 
stone floor. 

There was no idea of medicine. 

The cold in the rooms was so great that hands and 
feet of many were frozen. 

Sometimes prisoners shaking with frost would sneak 
out at night to find a little wood. Some Westphalians 
who had tried this were beaten to death. 

Some of the prisoners were literally eaten up by 
lice. 

Those who did not die of their wounds, of filth, 
and of misery, were carried away by petechial typhus 
which had developed into a violent epidemic in Wilna, 
and several thousand of the citizens, ^.mong them many 
Jews, succumbed to the ravages of this disease. 

One witness writes : "Little ceremony was observed 
in disposing of the dead; every morning I heard how 
those who had died during the night were thrown 
down the stairs or over the balcony into the yard, and 

141 



by counting these sinister sounds of falling bodies we 
knew how many had died during the night." 

The brutality of the guards was beyond description. 
First Lieutenant von Grolman, one of the most highly 
educated officers of the Badensian contingent, was 
thrown down the stairway because this (seriously 
wounded) officer had disturbed the inspector during 
the latter's leisure hour. 

Beating with the kantchou was nothing unusual. 

A Weimaranian musician, Theuss, has described 
some guileful tortures practised on the prisoners, 
which are so revolting that I dare not write them. 
They are given in Holzhausen's book. 

In their despair the prisoners, especially the officers 
among them, sent petitions to Duke Alexander of 
Wuerttemberg, to the Tzar, to the Grand Duke Con- 
stantine, and to the Ladies of the Russian Court. The 
Tzar and his brother Constantine came and visited the 
hospitals. They were struck by what they saw, and 
ordered relief. Officers were permitted to walk about 
the city, and many obtained quarters in private houses. 
Those who could not yet leave the gloomy wards of 
the hospitals were better cared for. 

It is touching to read Yelin's narration how the 
emaciated arms of those in the hospitals were stretched 
out when their comrades, returning from a promenade 
in the city, brought them a few apples. 

As they were no longer guarded as closely as before, 

many succeeded in escaping. Captain Roeder was 

one of them; Yelin was offered aid to flee, but he 

remained because he had given his word of honor to 

remain. 

But most of these favors came too late, only one 

142 



tenth were left that could be saved, the others had 
succumbed to their sufferings or died from typhus. 

A pestilential odor filled Wilna. Heaps of cadavers 
were burnt and when this was found to be too ex- 
pensive, thrown into the Wilia. Few of the higher 
officers were laid at rest in the cemetery, among them 
General von Roeder who as long as he was able had 
tried everything in his power to ameliorate the con- 
dition of his soldiers. Holzhausen brings the fac- 
simile of a letter of his, dated Wilna, December 30th., 
to the King of Wuerttemberg which proves his care 
for his soldiers. He died on January 6th., 1813. 



143 



FROM WILNA TO KOWNO 

While the prisoners of Wilna were suffering these 
nameless cruelties, the unfortunate army marched to 
reach the border of Russia at Kowno, the same Kowno 
where the Grand Army six months before had been 
seen in all its military splendor, crossing the Niemen. 

They had now to march 75 miles, a three days' 
march to arrive there. 

The conditions were about the same as those on the 
march from the Beresina to Wilna. Still the same 
misery, frost, and hunger, scenes of murder, fire. The 
description of the details would in general be a 
repetition, with little variation. 

The following is an account of the last days of 
the retreat taken from a letter of Berthier to the 
Emperor. 

When the army entered Wilna on December 8th., 
almost all the men were chilled by cold, and despite 
the commands of Murat and Berthier, despite the fact 
that the Russians were at the gates, both officers and 
soldiers kept to their quarters and refused to march. 

However, on the loth. the march upon Kowno was 

begun. But the extreme cold and the excess of snow 

completed the rout of the army. The final disbanding 

occurred on the loth. and nth., only a struggHng 

column remained, extending along the road, strewn 

with corpses, setting out at daybreak to halt at night 

in utter confusion. 

144 



In fact, there was no army left. How could it have 
subsisted with 25 degrees of cold? The onslaught, 
alas, was not of the foe, but of the harshest and 
severest of seasons fraught with crippling effect and 
untold suffering. 

Berthier, as well as Murat, would have wished to 
remain in Kowno through the 12th., but the disorder 
was extreme. Houses were pillaged and sacked, half 
the town was burned down, the Niemen was being 
crossed at all points, and it was impossible to stem 
the tide of fugitives. An escort was barely available 
for the protection of the King of Naples, the generals, 
and the Imperial eagles. And all amidst the cold, the 
intense cold, stupefying and benumbing! 

Four fifths of the army — or what bore the name of 
such, though reduced to a mere conglomeration and 
bereft of fighting men— had frozen limbs; and when 
Koenigsberg was reached, in a state of complete dis- 
organisation, the surgeons were constantly employed 
in amputating fingers and toes. 

Dr. W. Zelle, a German military surgeon, in his book 
*' 1812 " describes the last days of the army. Kowno 
was occupied by a considerable force of artillery, with 
two German battalions, and it contained also very 
large supplies, a great deal of ammunition, provisions, 
clothing, and arms of various kinds. About an hour's 
march from Wilna the retreatmg masses encountered 
the hill and defile of Ponary and it was at this point 
where the imperial treasure, so far conscientiously 
guarded by German troops from Baden and Wuerttem- 
berg, was lost. When the leaders of the treasure 
became convinced of the impossibility to save it, the 
jaded horses not being able after 15 hours' effort to 
climb the ice covered hill, they had the wagons opened, 

145 



the money chests broken, and the coin surrendered to 
the soldiers. 

The sight of the gold brought new life even to the 
half frozen ones ; they threw away their arms and 
were so greedy in loading themselves down with the 
mammon that many of them did not notice the ap- 
proaching Cossacks until it was too late. Friend and 
foe, Frenchmen and Russians pillaged the wagons. 
Honor, money, and what little had remained of dis- 
cipline, all was lost at this point. 

However, side by side with these outrages, noble 
deeds could also be recorded. Numerous wagons 
with wounded officers had to be abandoned, the horses 
being too weak to take another step, and many of the 
soldiers disregarded everything to save these un- 
fortunates, carrying them awa}^ on their shoulders. 
An adjutant of the emperor, Count Turenne, dis- 
tributed the private treasure of the emperor among 
the soldiers of the Old Guard, and not one of these 
faithful men kept any of the money for himself. All 
was honestly returned later on, and more than 6 
millions of francs reached Danzig safely. 

The retreat during these scenes and the following 
days, when the terrible cold caused more victims from 
hour to hour, was still covered by Ney whose iron 
constitution defied all hardships. From five until 
ten at night he personally checked the advance of the 
enemy, during the night he marched, driving all 
stragglers before him. From seven in the morning 
until ten the rear guard rested, after which time they 
continued the daily fight. 

His Bavarians numbered 260 on December nth., 
150 on the 17th. and on the 13th. the last 20 were taken 
prisoners. The corps had disappeared. The rc- 

146 



mainder of Loison's division and the garrison of Wilna 
diminished in the same' manner until, finally, the rear 
guard consisted of only 60 men. 

What was left of the army reached Kowno on the 
1 2th., after a long, tedious march, dying of cold and 
hunger. In Kowno there was an abundance of clothes, 
flour, and spirits. But the unrestrained soldiers broke 
the barrels, so that the spilled liquor formed a lake 
in the market place. The soldiers threw^ themselves 




down and by the hundreds drank until they were m- 
toxicated. More than 1200 drunken men reeled 
through the streets, dropped drowsily upon the icy 
stones or into the snow, their sleep soon passing into 
death. Of the entire corps of Eugene there remained 
only eight or ten officers with the prince. Only one 
day more (the 13th.) was the powerful Ney able, with 
the two German battalions of the garrison, to check 

the Cossacks, vigorously supported by the indefatig- 

147 



able generals, Gerard and Wrede. Not until the 
14th., at 9 o'clock at night, did he begin to retreat, 
with the last of the men, after having destroyed the 
bridges over the Wilia and the Niemen. Always 
fighting, receding but not fleeing, his person formed 
the rear guard of this Grand Army which five months 
previous crossed the river at this very point, now, on 
the 14th., consisting of only 500 foot guards, 600 
horse guards, and nine cannon. 

It is nobody but Ney who still represents the Grand 
Army, who fires the last shot before he, the last 
Frenchman, crosses the bridge over the Niemen, which 
is blown up behind him. If we look upon the knightly 
conduct of Ney during the entire campaign w^e cannot 
but think how much greater he was than the heroes of 
Homer. 

This man has demonstrated to the world upon this 
most terrible of all retreats that even fate is not able 
to subdue an imperturbable courage, that even the 
greatest adversity redounds to the glory of a hero. 

More than a thousand times did Ney earn in 
Russia the epithet, " the bravest of the brave," and 
the legend which French tradition has woven around 
y'' his person is quite justified. No mortal has ever 
performed such deeds of indomitable moral courage; 
all other heroes and exploits vanish in comparison ! 

Here, at the Niemen, the pursuit by the Russians 
came to an end for the time being. They, too, had 
suffered enormously. 

Not less than 18 thousand Russians were sick in 
Wilna; Kutusoff's army was reduced to 35 thousand 
men, that of Wittgenstein from 50 thousand to 15 
thousand. The entire Russian army, including the 
garrison of Riga, numbered not more than 100 thou- 

148 



-•'-:> 



sand. The winter, this terrible ally of the Russians, 
exacted a high price for the assistance it had rendered 
them ; of lo thousand men who left the interior, well 
provided with all necessities, only 1700 reached Wilna; 
the troops of cavalry did not number more than 20 
men. 

In all the literature which I have examined I did 
not find a better description of the life and the strug- 
gle of the soldiers on the retreat than that given by 
General Heinrich von Brandt of his march from 
Zembin to Wilna. It is a vivid picture of many de- 
tails from which we derive a full understanding of 
the great misery on the retreat in general. 

I shall give an extensive extract in his own words : 
*'We arrived late at Zembin, where we found many 
bivouac fires. It was very cold. Here and there 
around the fires were lying dead soldiers. 

" After a short rest, which had given us some new 
strength, we continued the march. If the stragglers 
arrive, we said to ourselves, we shall be lost; there- 
fore, let us hurry and keep ahead of them. Our Httle 
column kept well together, but at every halt some 
men were missing. Toward daybreak the cold be- 
came more severe. While it was dark yet, we met a 
file of gunpowder carts carrying wounded; from a 
number of these vehicles we heard heart-rending 
clamors of some of the wounded asking us to give 
them death. 

"At every moment we encountered dead or dying 
comrades, officers and soldiers, who were sitting on 
the road, exhausted from fatigue, awaiting their end. 
The sun rose blood-red; the cold was frightful. We 
stopped near a village where bivouac fires were burn- 
ing. Around these fires were grouped living and 

149 



dead soldiers. We lodged ourselves as well as we 
could and took from those who had retired from the 
scene of life — apparently during their sleep — any- 
thing that could be of service to us. I for my part 
helped myself to a pot in which I melted snow to 
make a soup from some bread crusts which I had in 
my pocket. We all relished this soup. 

"After an hour's rest we resumed our march and 
about 30 hours after our departure we reached 
Plechtchenissi. During this time we had made 25 
miles. At Plechtchenissi we found, at a kind of 
farm, sick, wounded and dead, all lying pell-mell. 
There was no room for us in the house; we were 
obliged to camp outside, but great fires compensated 
us for the want of shelter. 

'' We decided to rest during part of the night. 
While some of the soldiers roasted slices of horse 
meat and others prepared oatmeal cakes from oats 
which they had found in the village, we tried to sleep. 
But the frightful scenes through which we had passed 
kept us excited, and sleep would not come. 

" Toward i o'clock in the morning we left for 
Molodetchno. The cold was frightful. Our way 
was marked by the light of the bivouac fires which 
were seen at intervals and by cadavers of men and 
horses lying everywhere, and as the moon and the 
stars were out we could see them well. Our column 
became smaller all the while, officers and men disap- 
peared without our noticing their departure, without 
our knowing where they had fallen behind; and the 
cold increased constantly. When we stopped at some 
bivouac fire it seemed to us as if we were among 
the dead; nobody stirred, only occasionally would 
one or the other of those sitting around raise his 

150 



head, look upon us with glassy eyes, rest again, prob- 
ably never to rise again. What made the march 
during that night especially disagreeable was the icy 
wind whipping our faces. Toward 8 o'clock in the 
morning we perceived a church tower. That is 
Molodetchno, we all cried v/ith one voice. But to 
our disappointment we learned on our arrival that it 
was only Iliya, and that we were only half-way to 
Molodetchno. 

" Iliya was not completely deserted by the inhabi- 
tants, but the troops that had passed through it be- 
fore us had left almost nothing eatable in the place. 
We found abode in some houses and for a while were 
protected from the cold which was by no means abat- 
ing. In the farm of which we took possession we 
formd a warm room and a good litter, which we owed 
to our predecessors. 

'* It was strange that none of us could sleep ; we 
all were in a state of feverish excitement, and I at- 
tribute this to an indistinct fear; once asleep we 
might perhaps not awake again, as we had seen it 
happen a thousand tim^es. 

" The longer we remained at Iliya the more com- 
fortable we felt, and we decided to stay there all day 
and wait for news. Soup of buckwheat, a large 
pot of boiled corn, some slices of roast horse meat, 
although all without salt, formed a meal which we 
thought deHcious." 

von Brandt describes how they took off their gar- 
ments, or their wrappings which served as garments, 
to clean and repair them ; how some of his men found 
leather with which they enveloped their feet. The 
day and the night passed, and all had some sleep. 
But they had to leave. 

151 



"Some of the men refused to go; one of them 
when urged to come along said : ' Captain, let me 
die here; we all are to perish, a few days sooner or 
later is of no consequence. He was wounded, but 
not seriously, a bullet had passed through his arm; 
it was a kind of apathy which had come over him, 
and he could not be persuaded. He remained and 
probably died. 

'' We left ; the cold was almost unbearable. Along 
the road we found bivouacs, at which one detachment 
relieved the other; the succeeding surpassing the pre- 
ceding one in misery and distress. Everywhere, on 
the road and in the bivouacs, the dead were lying, 
most of them stripped of their clothes. 

" It was imperative to keep moving, for remaining 
too long at the bivouac fires meant death, and dan- 
gerous was it also to remain behind, separated from 
the troop. (The danger of being alone under such cir- 
cumstances as existed here has been pointed out by 
Beaupre.) 

*' We marched to Molodetchno where the great 
road commences and where we expected some ame- 
lioration, and, indeed, we found it. The everlasting 
cold was now the principal cause of our sufferings. 

" In the village there was some kind of order ; we 
saw many soldiers bearing arms and of a general good 
appearance. The houses were not all deserted, 
neither were they as overcrowded as in other places 
through which we had passed. We established our- 
selves in some of them situated on the road to Smor- 
goni, and we had reason to be satisfied with our 
choice. We bought bread at an enormous price, 
made soup of it which tasted very good to us, and 

we had plenty for all of us. 

152 



"At Molodetchno men of our division joined us 
and brought us the news of the crossing of the 
Beresina." 

von Brandt gives the description of the events at 
the Beresina and tells of the historical significance 
of Molodetchno as the place where Napoleon so- 
journed 1 8 hours and from where he dated the 29th. 
bulletin. 

" We left the village on the following morning at 
an early hour and continued our march on the road 
to Smorgoni. 

"A description of this march/' writes von Brandt, 
"would only be a repetition of what had been said 
of scenes of preceding days. We were overtaken 
by a snowstorm the violence of which surpassed all 
imagination, fortunately this violence lasted only 
some hours, but on account of it our little column 
became dispersed. 

" One bivouac left an impression of horror to last 
for all my lifetime. In a village crowded with sol- 
diers we came to a fire which was burning quite 
lively, around it were lying some dead. We wxre 
tired; it was late, and we decided to rest there. We 
removed the corpses to make room for the living 
and arranged ourselves the best w^ay we could. A 
fence against which the snow had drifted protected 
us from the north wind. Many who passed by en- 
vied us this good place. Some stopped for a while, 
others tried to establish themselves near us. Gradu- 
ally the fatigue brought sleep to some of us ; the 
stronger ones brought wood to keep up the fire. But 
it snowed constantly; after one had warmed one side 
of the body an effort was made to warm the other; 

after one foot had been warmed the other was 

153 



brought near the flame; a complete rest was impossi- 
ble. At daybreak we prepared to depart. Thirteen 
men of our troop, all wounded, did not answer the 
roll call. My heart pained. 

" We had to pass in front of the fence which had 
given us protection against the wind during the night. 
Imagine our surprise when we saw that what we had 




g~SJ^ 



^^- ^ CM 



"No fear, we soon shall follow you. 



taken for a fence was a pile of corpses which our 
predecessors had heaped one upon the other. These 
dead were men of all countries, Frenchmen, Swiss, 
Italians, Poles, Germans, as we could distinguish by 
their uniforms. Most of them had their arms ex- 
tended as if they had been stretching themselves. 
* Look, Captain,' said one of the soldiers, ' they 

154 



stretch their hands out to us ; ah, no fear, we soon 
shall follow you.' 

" We were soon to have another horrid sight. In 
a village, many houses of which had been burnt, there 
were the ghastly remains of burnt corpses, and in 
one building, especially, there was a large number of 
such infesting the air with their stench. A repeti- 
tion of scenes I had seen at Saragossa and at Smo- 
lensk. 

"At sunset we arrived at Smorgoni, and here we 
enjoyed great comfort. It was the first place where 
we could obtain something for money. From an old 
Jewess we bought bread, rice, and also a little coffee, 
all at reasonable prices. It was the first cup of cof- 
fee I had had for months, and it invigorated me very 
much. 

'' We were young, and our good humor had 
soon been restored to us ; it made us forget, for the 
time being at least, how much we had suffered, and 
at this moment we did not think of the suft'ering yet 
in store for us. 

" We left for Ochmiana ; our march was tedious. 
Again we encountered a great many dead strewn on 
the road ; many of them had died from cold ; some 
still had their arms, young men, well dressed, their 
cloaks, shoes, and socks, however, were taken from 
them. Half way to Ochmiana we took a rest at a 
bivouac which had been evacuated quite recently. 

" The night we passed here was fearful. I had 
an inflamed foot, and felt a burning pain under the 
arms which caused me great difficulty in the use of 
my crutches. Fortunately I found a place on which 

a fire had been burning, and I was not obliged to 

155 



sleep on the snow. The soldiers kept np a fire all 
night, and I had a good and invigorating sleep, in 
consequence of which I could take up the march on 
the following day, with new courage and zeal. 

" Toward 1 1 o'clock we arrived, together with a 
mass of fugitives, at Ochmiana. Before entering the 
city we encountered a convoy of provisions, escorted 
by a young Mecklenburg officer, Lieutenant Rud- 
loiT, who some years later served as a Prussian 
general. He made an attempt to defend his sleighs, 
but in vain. The crowd surrounded him and his 
convoy and pushed in such a manner that neither he 
nor his men were able to stir. The sleighs, carrying 
excellent biscuits, were pillaged. I myself gathered 
some in the snow, and I can well say that they saved 
my life until we reached Wilna. 

"Arrived at Ochmiana we at once continued our 
march upon Miednicki. 

" The city was occupied by a crowd of disbanded 
soldiers — marauders who had established themselves 
everywhere. It was only with difficulty that we 
found some sort of lodging in a kind of pavilion 
which was icy and had no chimneys. However, we 
managed to heat it and arranged litter for 20 men. 
With bread and biscuit brought from Ochmiana we 
prepared a good meal. 

" When we crossed the Goina we numbered 50 ; 
this number had increased so that we were at one 
time 70, but now our number had decreased to 29. 

" We left at an early hour on the next morning. 

It was frightfully cold. Half way to Miednicki we 

had to stop at a bivouac. On the road we saw many 

cadavers." von Brandt here describes the fatal 

effects of cold and his description, though less com- 

156 



plete, corresponds with the descriptions given by 
Beaupre, von Scherer, and others. Especially revolt- 
ing, he says, was the sight of the toes of the cadavers ; 
often there were no more soft parts. The soldiers, 
first of all, took the shoes from their dead comrades, 
next the cloaks ; they would wear two or three or cut 
one to cover their feet and their head with the pieces. 

The last part of the march to Miedniki was most 
painful for von Brandt, on account of the inflamma- 
tion of his left foot. 

He describes his stay at that place in which there 
were many stragglers. He bivouaked in a garden; 
they had straw enough and a good fire, also biscuits 
from Ochmiana, and they suffered only from the cold, 
30 deg. below zero R. (36 deg. below zero Fahren- 
heit.) On this occasion von Brandt speaks of the 
pains, the sufferings, the condition of his comrades. 
One of them, Zelinski, had not uttered a word since 
their departure from Smorgoni; he had no tobacco, 
and this troubled him more than physical pain; 
another one, Karpisz, crushed by sorrow and suffer- 
ings, was in a delirious state ; in the same condition 
were some of the wounded. But after all, in the 
midst of their sad reflections, some of them fell 
asleep. Those who were well enough took up reliefs 
on night watch. Every one of the group had to bear 
some special great misery, and upon the whole their 
trials were beyond endurance : In the open air at 30 
deg, R. below zero, without sufficient clothing, with- 
out privisions, full of vermin, exposed at any moment 
to the attacks of the enemy, surrounded by a rapa- 
cious rabble, deprived of aid, wounded, they were 
hardly in a condition to drag themselves along. 

" Still an 8 hours' march to Wilna," I said to 

157 



Zelinski; "Will we reach there?" He shook his head 
in doubt." 
\^ One of the men, Wasilenka, a sergeant, the most 
,,,.^-^courageous, the firmest of the little column, of a ro- 
bust constitution, had found at Ochmiana some 
brandy and some potatoes. He said if one had not 
lost his head entirely, one could have many things, 
but nothing can be done with the French any more; 
they are not the Frenchmen of former times, a 
Cossack's casque upsets them ; it is a shame ! And 
he told the great news of Napoleon's departure from 
the army of which the others of von Brandt's column 
had yet not been informed. Interesting as was the 
conversation on this event, I have to omit it. 

The extreme cold did not allow much sleep; long 
before daylight they were on their feet. It was a 
morning of desolation, as always. 

von Brandt now describes the characteristic phe- 
nomena of the landscape; the words are almost 
identical with the description Beaupre has given of the 
Russian landscape in the winter of 1812. 

" I could not march, the pain under my shoulders 
was very great. I felt as if all at this region of my 
body would tear off. But I marched all the same. 
Many were already on the road, all in haste to reach 
the supposed end of their sufferings. They seemed 
to be in a race, and the cold, the incredible cold, drove 
them also to march quickly. On this day there per- 
ished more men than usual, and we passed these un- 
fortunates without a sign of pity, as if all human feel- 
ing had been extinguished in the souls of us, the sur- 
viving. We marched in silence, hardly any one ut- 
tered a word; if, however, some one spoke, it was 

to say how is it that I am not in your place; besides 

158 



this nothing was heard but the sighing and the groans 
of the dying. 

" It was perhaps 9 o'clock when we had covered 
half of the way and took a short rest, after which we 
resumed our march and arrived before Wilna toward 
3 o'clock, having marched ten hours, exhausted be- 
yond description. The cold was intolerable; as I 
learned afterward it had reached 29 deg. below zero 
Reaumur (36 deg. below zero Fahrenheit.) But im- 
agine our surprise when armed guards forbade us 
to enter the city. The order had been given to admit 
only regular troops. The commanders had thought 
of the excesses of Smolensk and Orscha and here at 
least they intended to save the magazines from pil- 
lage. Our little column remained at the gate for a 
while; we saw that whoever risked to mix with the 
crowd could not extricate himself again and could 
neither advance nor return. It came near sunset, the 
cold by no means abated but, on the contrary, aug- 
mented. Every minute the crowd increased in num- 
ber, the dying and dead mixed up with the living. We 
decided to go around the city, to try to enter at some 
other part; after half an hour's march we succeeded 
and found ourselves in the streets. They were full 
of baggage, soldiers, and inhabitants. But where to 
turn? Where to seek aid? By good luck we remem- 
bered that our officers passing Wilna on their way 
during the spring had been well received by Mr. 
Malczewski, a friend of our colonel.^ Nothing more 
natural than to go to him and ask for asylum. But 
imagine our joy, our delight, when at our arrival at 
the house we found our colonel himself, the quarter- 
master and many officers known by us, who all were 
the guests of Mr. Malczewski. Even Lieutenant 

159 



Gordon who commanded our depot at Thorn was 
there; he had come after he had had the news of the 
battle of Borodino. 

" My faithful servant Maciejowski and the brave 
Wasilenka carried me up the stairs and placed me in 
bed. I was half dead, hardly master of my senses. 
Gordon gave me a shirt, my servant took charge of 
my garments to free them from vermin, and after 
I had had some cups of hot beer with ginger in it 
and was under a warm blanket, I recovered strength 
enough to understand what I was told and to do what 
I was asked to do. 

"A Jewish physician examined and dressed my 
wounds. He found my shoulders very much in- 
flamed and prescribed an ointment which had an ex- 
cellent effect. I fell into a profound sleep which 
was interrupted by the most bizarre imaginary 
scenes ; there was not one of the hideous episodes 
of the last fortnight which did not pass in some 
form or another before my mind. 

" Washed, cleaned, passably invigorated, refreshed 
especially by some cups of hot beer, I was able to rise 
on the following morning and to assist at the council 
which the colonel had called together." 

von Brandt now describes how the mass of fugi- 
tives came and pillaged the magazines. The colonel 
saved a great many, supplied them with shoes, cloaks, 
caps, woolen socks, and provisions. von Brandt 
describes the scenes of Wilna from the time the 
Cossacks had entered. 

"The colonel prepared to depart; at first he hesi- 
tated to take us, the wounded, along, asking if we 
could stand the voyage. I said to remain would be 
certain death, and with confidence I set out on the 

160 



march with my men, the number of whom was now 
twenty. We had sleighs and good horses. 

" The night was superb. It was Hght Hke day. 
The stars shone more radiantly than ever upon our 
misery. The cold was still severe beyond descrip- 
tion and more sensible to us who had nearly lost the 
habit to feel it during forty-eight hours of relief. 

'' We had to make our way through an indescriba- 
ble tangle of carriages and wagons to reach the gate, 
and the road as far as we could see was also covered 
with vehicles, wagons, sleighs, cannons, all mixed up. 
We had great difficulties to remain together. 

"After an hour's march all came to a halt; we 
found ourselves before a veritable sea of men. The 
wagons could not be drawn over a hill on account 
of the ice, and the road became hopelessly blockaded. 
Here it was where the military treasure of 12 million 
francs was given to the soldiers." 

von Brandt describes his most wonderful adven- 
tures on the way to Kowno which, although most in- 
teresting, add nothing to what has already been 
described. I gave this foregoing part of von Brandt's 
narration because it gives a most vivid picture of the 
life of the soldiers during the supreme moments of 
the retreat from Moscow. 



161 



PRISONERS OF WAR 

Beaupre was taken prisoner at the passage of the 
Beresina and remained in captivity for some time. 
His lot as a prisoner of war was an exceptionally good 
one. He tells us that prisoners when they were out 
of such parts of the country as had been ravaged by 
the armies, received regular rations of a very good 
quality, and were lodged by eight, ten, and twelve, with 
the peasants. In the provincial capitals, they received 
furs of sheep skin, fur bonnets, gloves, and coarse 
woolen stockings, a sort of dress that appeared to them 
grotesque as well as novel, but which was very precious 
as a protection against the cold during the winter. 
When arrived at the places in which they were to pass 
the time of their captivity they found their lot 
ameliorated, and the reception accorded to them de- 
manded a grateful eulogy of the hospitality exercised 
by the Russians. 

Quite different was the experience of a very young 
German, Karl Schehl, a private whose memoirs have 
been kept in his family, and were recently published by 
one of his grand-nephews. After a battle on the 
retreat from Moscow he, with many others, was taken 
prisoner by Cossacks, who at once plundered the 
captives. Schehl was deprived of his uniform, his 
breeches, his* boots. He had a gold ring on his ring 
finger, and one of the Cossacks, thinking it too much 

162 



trouble to remove the ring in the natural way, had 
already drawn his sabre to cut off the prisoner's left 




hand, when an officer saw this and gave the brutal 
Cossack a terrible blow in the face ; he then removed 
the ring without hurting the boy and kept it for him- 

163 



self. Another officer took Schehl's gold Avatch. Schehl 
stood then with no other garment but a shirt, and 
barefoot, in the bitter cold, not daring to approach 
the bivouac fire. The Cossacks (on examining the 
garments of Schehl), found in one of the pockets a 
B clarinette. This discovery gave them great 
pleasure; they induced their captive to play for them, 
and he played, chilled to the bone in his scanty costume. 
But now the Cossacks came to offer him garments, a 
regular outfit for the Russian winter. They gave him 
food to eat and did all they could to show their ap- 
preciation of the music. What a rapid change of 
fortune within two hours, writes Schehl. Toward 
noon, riding a good horse, with considerable money in 
Russian bank notes and a valuable gold watch in his 
possession, all brought from Moscow, at i p.m. he 
stood dressed in a shirt only, with his bare feet on the 
frozen ground, and at 2 p. m. he was admired as an 
artist by a large audience that gave him warm clothes, 
which meant protection against the danger of freezing 
to death, and a place near the fire. 

During that afternoon and the following night more 
French soldiers of all arms, mostly emaciated and 
miserable, were escorted to the camp by Russian 
miHtia, peasants, armed with long, sharp lances. It 
was the night from October 30th. to 31st., at the time 
of the first snowfall, with a temperature of — 12 deg. 
Reaumur (about 5 degrees above zero Fahrenheit). 
Of the 700 prisoners, many of them deprived of their 
clothing, as Schehl had been deprived, w^ho had to 
camp without a fire, quite a number did not see the 
next morning, and the already described snow hills 
indicated where these unfortunates had reached the 
end of their sufferings. The commanding officer of the 

164 



Cossacks ordered the surviving prisoners to fall in line 
for the march back to Moscow. The escort consisted 
of two Cossacks and several hundred peasant-soldiers. 
Within sixteen hours the 700 had been reduced to 500. 
And they had to march back over the road which they 
had come yesterday as companions of their emperor. 
The march was slow, they were hardly an hour on 
the road when here and there one of the poor, half 
naked, starving men fell into the snow; immediately 
was he pierced with the lance of one of the peasant 
soldiers who shouted stopai sukinsin (forward you 
dog), but as a rule the one who had fallen was no 
longer able to obey the brutal command. Two Rus- 
sian peasant soldiers would then take hold, one at 
each leg, and drag the dying man with the head over 
snow and stones until he was dead, then leave the 
corpse in the middle of the road. In the woods they 
would practise the same cruelties as the North Ameri- 
can Indians, tie those who could not rise to a tree and 
amuse themselves by torturing the victim to death 
with their lances. And, says Schehl, I could narrate 
still other savageries, but they are too revolting, they 
are worse than those of the savage Indians. Fortun- 
ately, Schehl himself w^as protected from all molesta- 
tions by the peasants by the two Cossacks of the 
escort. He was even taken into the provision wagon 
where he could ride between bundles of hay and straw. 
On the evening of the first day's march the troops 
camped in a birch forest. Russian people are fond of 
melancholy music; Schehl played for them adagios 
on his clarinette, and the Cossacks gave him the best 
they had to eat. His comrades, nov^ reduced to 400 in 
number, received no food and were so terror-stricken 
or so feeble that only from time to time they emitted 

165 



sounds of clamor. Some would crawl into the snow 
and perish, while those who kept on moving were 
able to prolong their miserable lives. The second night 
took away lOO more, so that the number of prisoners 
was reduced to less than 300 on the morning of October 
31st. During the night from October 31st. to Novem- 
ber 1st. more than one-half of the prisoners who had 
come into the camp had perished, and there were only 
about 100 men left to begin the march. This mortality 
was frightful. Schehl thinks that the peasants killed 
many during the night in order to be relieved of their 
guard duty. For the Cossacks w^ould send the super- 
fluous guardsmen away and retain only as many as 
one for every four prisoners. They saw that the com- 
pletely exhausted Frenchmen could be driven forward 
like a herd of sick sheep, and hardly needed any guard. 
In the morning we passed a village, writes Schehl, 
in which stood some houses which had not been 
burned. The returned inhabitants were busy clearing 
away the rubbish and had built some provisional straw 
huts. I sat as harmless as possible on my wagon when 
suddenly a girl in one of the straw huts screamed loud 
Matuschka! Matuschka! Franzusi! Franzusi Nie- 
wolni! (Mother! mother! Frenchmen! French pri- 
soners!), and now sprang forward a large woman, 
armed with a thick club and struck me such a power- 
ful blow on the head that I became unconscious. When 
I opened my eyes again the woman struck me once 
more, this time on my left shoulder and so violently 
that I screamed. My arm was paralyzed from the 
stroke. Fortunately, one of the Cossacks came to my 
rescue, scolded the woman, and chased her away. 

On the evening of November ist., the troops came 
to a village through which no soldiers had passed, 

166 



which had not been disturbed by the war. Of the 
prisoners only 60 remained ahve, and these were 
lodged in the houses. 

Schehl describes the interior of the houses of Rus- 
sian peasants as well as the customs of the Russian 
peasants, which description is highly interesting, and 
I shall give a brief abstract of it. 

The houses are all frame buildings with a thatched 
roof, erected upon a foundation of large unhewn 
stones, the interstices of which are filled with clay, 
and built in an oblong shape, of strong, round pine 
logs placed one on top of the other. Each layer 
is stuffed with moss, and the ends of the logs are 
interlocking. The buildings consist of one story 
only, with a very small, unvaulted cellar. 

Usually there are only two rooms in these houses, 
and wealthy peasants use both of them for their 
personal requirements ; the poorer classes, on the 
other hand, use only one of the rooms for themselves, 
and the other for their horses, cows, and pigs. 

The most prominent part of the interior arrange- 
ment of these rooms is the oven, covering about six 
feet square, with a brick chimney in the houses of 
the wealthy, but without chimney in those of the 
poor, so that the smoke must pass through the door 
giving a varnished appearance to the entire ceiling 
over the door. 

There are no chairs in the rooms ; during the day 
broad benches along the walls and oven are used 
instead. At night, the members of the household 
lie down to sleep on these benches, using any con- 
venient piece of clothing for a pillow. It seems the 
Russian peasant of one hundred years ago considered 
beds a luxury. 

167 



Every one of these houses, those of the rich as well 
as those of the poor, contains in the easterly corner 
of the sitting room a cabinet with more or less costly 
sacred images. 

On entering the room the newcomer immediately 
turns his face toward the cabinet, crossing himself 
three times in the Greek fashion, simultaneously in- 
clining his head, and not until this act of devotion 
has been performed does he address individually 
every one present. In greeting, the family name is 
never mentioned, only the first name, to which is 
added: Son of so and so (likewise the first name 
Dnly), but the inclination of the head — ^pagoda like — 
is never omitted. 

All the members of the household say their very 
simple prayers in front of the cabinet; at least, I 
never heard them say anything else but Gospodin 
pomilui (O Lord, have mercy upon us) ; but such a 
prayer is very fatiguing for old and feeble persons 
because Gospodin pomilui is repeated at least 24 
times, and every repetition is accompanied with a 
genuflection and a prostration, naturally entailing a 
great deal of hardship owing to the continued exertion 
of the entire body. 

In addition to the sacred cabinet, the oven, and the 
benches, every one of the rooms contains another 
loose bench about six feet long, a table of the same 
length, and the kvass barrel which is indispensable 
to every Russian. 

This cask is a wooden vat of about 50 to 60 gallons 
capacity, standing upright, the bottom of which is 
covered with a little rye flour and wheat bran — ^the 
poor use chaff of rye — upon which hot water is 
poured. The water becomes acidulated in about 24 

168 



hours and tastes like water mixed with vinegar. A 
Httle clean rye straw is placed inside of the vat, in 
front of the bunghole, allowing the kvass to run fairly 
clear into the wooden cup. When the vat is three- 
quarters empty more water is added; this must he 
done very often, as the kvass barrel with its single 
drinking cup — placed always on top of the barrel — ' 
is regarded as common property. Every member of 
the household and every stranger draws and drinks 
from it to their heart's content, without ever asking 
permission of the owner of the house. Kvass is a 
very refreshing summer drink, especially in the 
houses of wealthy peasants who need not be particu- 
lar with their rye flour and who frequently renew the 
original ingredients of the concoction. 

The peasant soldiers took the most comfortable 
places ; for Schehl and his nine comrades, who were 
lodged with him in one of the houses, straw was 
given to make a bed on the floor, but most of the nine 
syntrophoi were so sick and feeble that they could not 
make their couch, and six could not even eat the pound 
of bread which every one had received; they hid the 
remaining bread under the rags which represented 
their garments. Schehl, although he could not raise 
his left arm, helped the sick, notwithstanding the pain 
he suffered, to spread the straw on the floor. On the 
morning of the 2d. of November the sick, who had not 
been able to eat all their bread, were dead. Schehl, 
while the surviving ones were stiir asleep, took the 
bread v^hich he found on the corpses, to hide it in his 
sheepskin coat. This inheritance was to be the means 
of saving his life; without it he would have starved 
to death while a prisoner in Moscow. 

They left this village with now only 29 prisoners and 

169 



arrived on the same evening, reduced to ii in number, 
in Moscow, where they were locked up in one of the 
houses, together with many other prisoners. Of the 
700 fellow prisoners of Schehl 689 had died during 
the four days and four nights of hunger, cold, and 
most barbaric cruelties. If the prisoners had hoped 
to be saved from further cruelties while in Moscow 
they were bitterly disappointed. First of all, their 
guards took from them all they themselves could use, 
and on this occasion Schehl lost his clarinette which he 
considered as his life saver. Fortunately, they did 
not take from him the six pieces of bread. After hav- 
ing been searched the prisoners were driven into a 
room which was already filled with sick or dying, lying 
on the floor with very little and bad straw under them. 
The newcomers had difficulties to find room for them- 
selves among these other unfortunates. The guards 
brought a pail of fresh water but nothing to eat. In 
a room with two windows, which faced the inner 
court-yard, were locked up over 30 prisoners, and all 
the other rooms in the building were filled in the same 
way. During the night from November 2d. to Novem- 
ber 3d. several of Schehl's companions died and were 
thrown through the window into the court yard, after 
the jailors had taken from the corpses whatever they 
could use. Similar acts were performed in the other 
rooms, and it gave the survivors a little more room to 
stretch their limbs. This frightful condition lasted six 
days and six nights, during which time no food was 
given to them. The corpses in the yard were piled 
up so high that the pile reached up to the windows. 
It was 48 hours since Schehl had eaten the last of the 
six pieces of bread, and he was so tortured by hunger 

that he lost all courage, when at 10 o'clock in the 

170 



forenoon a Russian officer entered and in German 
ordered the prisoners to get ready within an hour for 
roll call in the court yard, because the interimistic 
commanding officer of Moscow, Colonel Orlowski, was 
to review them. Immediately before this took place, 
the prisoners had held a counsel among themselves 
whether it would be wise to offer themselves for Rus- 
sian military service in order to escape the imminent 
danger of starving to death. When that officer so un- 
expectedly had entered, Schehl, although the youngest 
— he w^as only 15 years of age — but relatively the 
strongest, because he was the last of them who had 
had a little to eat, rose with difficulty from his straw 
bed and made the offer, saying that they were at pre- 
sent very weak and sick from hunger, but that they 
would soon regain their strength if they were given 
something to eat. The officer in a sarcastic and rough 
manner replied : " His Majesty our glorious Emperor, 
Alexander, has soldiers enough and does not need you 
dogs." He turned and left the room, leaving the un- 
fortunates in a state of despair. Toward 11 o'clock 
he returned, ordering the prisoners to descend the 
stairs and fall in line in the court yard. All crawled 
from their rooms, 80 in number, and stood at attention 
before the colonel, who was a very handsome and 
strong man, six foot tall, with expressive and benevo- 
lent features. The youth of Schehl made an impression 
on him, and he asked in German : " My little fellow, 
are you already a soldier?" 

S. At your service, colonel. 

C. How old are you? 

S. Fifteen years, colonel, 

C. How is it possible that you at your young age 
came into service? 

171 



S. Only my passion for horses induced me to vol- 
unteer my services in the most beautiful regiment of 
France, as trumpeter. 

C. Can you ride horseback and take care of horses? 

S. At your service, colonel ! 

C. Where are the many prisoners who have been 
brought here, according to reports there should be 800. 

S. What you see here, colonel, is the sad remainder 
of those 800 men. The others have died. 

C. Is there an epidemic disease in this house ? 

S. Pardon me, colonel, but those comrades of mine 
have all died from starvation; for during the six 
days we are here we received no food. 

C. What you say, little fellow, cannot be true, for I 
have ordered to give you the prescribed rations of 
bread, meat, and brandy, the same as are given to 
the Russian soldiers, and this has been the will of the 
Czar. 

S. Excuse me, colonel, I have told the truth, and if 
you will take the pains to walk into the rear yard you 
will see the corpses. 

The colonel went and convinced himself of the cor- 
rectness of my statement. He retu*-ned in the greatest 
anger, addressed some officer in Russian, gave some 
orders and went along the front to hear Schehl's report 
confirmed by several other prisoners. The officer who 
had received orders returned, accompanied by six 
Uhlans, each of the latter with hazelnut sticks. Now^ the 
jailors were called and had to deliver everything which 
they had taken from their prisoners; unfortunately, 
Schehl's clarinette was not among the articles that were 
returned. And now Schehl witnessed the most severe 
punishment executed on the jailors. They had to 
remove their coats and were whipped with such can- 

172 



nibal cruelty that bloody pieces of flesh were torn njBf 
their backs, and some had to be carried from the place. 
They deserved severe punishment, for they had sold 
all the food which during six days had been delivered 
to them for 800 men. 

The surviving prisoners were now treated well, the 
colonel took Schehl with him to do service in his 
castle. 

The case of Karl Schehl is a typical one. 

Holzhausen has collected a great many similar ones 
from family papers, which never before had been 
published. All the writers of these papers speak, 
exactly like Schehl, in plain, truthful language, and the 
best proof of their veracity is that all, independent of 
each other, tell the same story of savage cruelty and 
of robbery. All, in narrating their experiences, do not 
omit any detail, all give dates and localities which they 
had retained exactly from those fearful days which 
had left the most vivid impressions. There is much 
repetition in these narrations, for all had experienced 
the same. 

All tell that the Cossacks were the first to rob the 
prisoners. These irregular soldiers received no pay 
and considered it their right to compensate themselves 
for the hardships of the campaign by means of rob- 
bery. 

Besides the tales collected by Holzhausen I can refer 
to many other writers, Frenchmen, the Englishman 
Wilson, and even Russians among them, but the ma- 
terial is so voluminous that I shall confine myself to 
select only what concerned physicians who were taken 
prisoners. 

The Bavarian Sanitary Corps, captured at Polotsk, 

after having been mercilessly robbed by Cossacks, was 

173 



brought before a Russian General, who did not even 
take notice of them. It was only after Russian phy- 
sicians interfered in their behalf that they obtained a 
hearing of their grievances. 

Prisoners tell touching stories how they were saved 
by German physicians, in most instances from typhus. 
In almost all larger Russian cities there were German 
physicians, and this was a blessing to many of the 
prisoners. Holzhausen gives the names of several of 
the sick and the names of the physicians who spared 
no pains in attending to the sufferers. 

In the course of time and with the change of cir- 
cumstances the lot of the prisoners in general was 
ameliorated, and in many instances their life became 
comfortable. Many found employment as farm hands 
or at some trade, as teachers of languages, but the 
principal occupation at which they succeeded was the 
practice of medicine. Whether they were competent 
physicians or only dilettantes they all gained the con- 
fidence of the Russian peasantry. In a land in which 
physicians are scarce the followers of Aesculap are 
highly appreciated. 

When a Russian peasant had overloaded his stomach 
and some harmless mixture or decoction given him 
by some of the pseudo physicians had had a good 
effect — ^post hoc ergo propter hoc — ^the medicine man 
who had come from far away was highly praised and 
highly recommended. 

Lieutenant Furtenbach treated with so-called sym- 
pathetic remedies and had a success which surprised 
nobody more than himself. 

Real physicians were appreciated by the educated 

and influential Russians and secured a more lucrative 

practice within weeks than they had been able to 

174 



secure after years at home. Dr. Roos, of whom I 
have already spoken, having been taken prisoner near 
the Beresina, became physician to the hospitals of 
Borisow and Schitzkow and soon had the greatest 
private practice of any physician in the vicinity; he 
afterward was called to the large hospitals in St. 
Petersburg, and was awarded highest honors by the 
Russian government. 

More remarkable was the career of Adjutant Braun 
which has been told by his friend, Lieutenant Peppier, 
who acted as his assistant. 

Braun had studied medicine for a while, but ex- 
changed sound and lancet for the musket. As prisoner 
of war, at the urgent request of his friend Peppier, he 
utilized his unfinished studies. Venaesection was very 
popular in Russia, he secured a lancet, a German 
tailor made rollers hor him, and soon he shed much 
Russian blood. The greatest triumph, however, of 
the two Aesculapians was Braun's successful operation 
for cataract which he performed on a police officer, 
his instrument being a rusty needle. The description 
of the operating scene during which the assistant 
Peppier trembled from excitement is highly dramatic. 
Braun became the favorite of the populace and every- 
body regretted that he left when he was free. 



175 



TREATMENT OF TYPHUS 

Among the old publications referring to the medical 
history of Napoleon's campaign in Russia I found 
one of a Prussian army physician, Dr. Krantz, pub- 
lished in the year 1817 with the following title: Be- 
merkungen iiber den Gang der Krankheiten welche 
in der koniglich preussischen Armee vom Ausbruch 
des Krieges im Jahre 181 2 bis zu Ende des Waffen- 
stillstandes (im Aug.) 181 3 geherrscht haben. (Re- 
marks on the course of the Diseases which have 
reigned in the Royal Prussian Army from the Be- 
ginning of the War in the Year 1812 until the End of 
the Armistice [in August] 1813). From this I shall 
give the following extract : 

It is well known that the soldiers constituting the 

wreck of the Grand Army wherever they passed on 

their way from Russia through Germany spread ruin; 

their presence brought death to thousands of peaceful 

citizens. Even those who were apparently well carried 

the germs of disease with them, for we found whole 

families, says Krantz, in whose dwelling soldiers. 

showing no signs of disease, had stayed over night, 

stricken down with typhus. The Prussian soldiers 

of York's corps had not been with the Grand Army 

in Moscow, and there was no typhus among them until 

they followed the French on their road of retreat from 

Russia. From this moment on, however, the disease 

176 



spread with the greatest rapidity in the whole Prussian 
army corps, and this spreading took place with a cer- 
tain uniformity among the different divisions. On 
account of the overflowing of the rivers, the men had 
to march closely together on the road, at least until 
they passed the Vistula near Dirschau, Moeve, and 
Marienwerder. Of the rapid extent of the infection 
we can form an idea when we learn the following 
facts : In the first East Prussian regiment of infantry, 
when it came to the Vistula, there was not a single 
case of typhus, while after a march of 14 miles on 
the highway which the French had passed before them 
there were 15 to 20 men sick in every company, every 
tenth or even every seventh man. In those divisions 
which had been exposed to infection v^hile in former 
cantonments, the cases were much more numerous, 20 
to 30 in every company. 

Simultaneously with typhus there appeared the 
first cases of an epidemic ophthalmy. Although the 
eye affection was not as general as the typhus — it oc- 
curred only in some of the divisions, and then at the 
outset not so severely as later on — ^both evils were 
evidently related to each other by a common causal 
nexus. They appeared simultaneously under similar 
circumstances, but never attacked simultaneously the 
same individual. Whoever had ophthalmy was immune 
against typhus and vice versa, and this immunity fur- 
nished by one against the other evil lasted a long 
period of time. Both diseases were very often cured 
on the march. We found confirmed, says Krantz, what 
had been asserted a long time before by experienced 
physicians, that cold air had the most beneficial effect 
during the inflammatory stage of contagious typhus. 
For this reason the soldiers who presented the first 

177 



well-known symptoms of typhus infection : headache, 
nausea, vertigo, etc., were separated from their healthy 
comrades and entrusted to medical care, and this con- 
sisted, except in the case of extraordinarily grave 
symptoms, in dressing the patient with warm clothing 
and placing him for the march on a wagon where he 
was covered all over with straw. The wagon was 
driven fast, to follow the corps, but halted frequently 
on the way at houses where tea (Infusum Chamo- 
millae, species aromaticarum, etc.) with or without 
wine or spiritus sulphuricus aetherius were prepared; 
of this drink the patient was given a few cupfuls to 
warm him. As a precaution against frost, which 
proved to be a very wise one, hands and feet were 
wrapped in rags soaked in spiritus vini camphoratus. 
For quarters at night isolated houses were selected 
for their reception — a precaution taught by sad expe- 
rience — and surgeons or couriers who had come there 
in advance had made the best preparations possi- 
ble. All the hospitals between the Vistula and Ber- 
lin, constantly overfilled, were thoroughly infected, and 
thus transformed into regular pest-houses exhaling 
perdition to every one who entered, the physicians and 
attendants included. On the other hand, most of the 
patients who were treated on the march recovered. Of 
31 cases of typhus of the 2d. battalion of the infantry 
guards transported from Tilsit to Tuchel, only one 
died, while the remaining 30 regained their health com- 
pletely, a statistical result as favorable as has hardly 
ever happened in the best regulated hospital and which 
is the more surprising on account of the severe form of 
the disease at that time. An equally favorable result 
was obtained in the first East Prussian regiment of in- 
fantry on the march from the Vistula to the Spree. 

178 



There was not a single death on the march; ol 330 
patients 300 recovered, 30 were sent into hospitals of 
Elbing, Maerkisch Friedland, Conitz, and Berlin, and 
the same excellent results were reported from other 
divisions of the corps where the same method had 
been followed. 

A most remarkable observation among the immense 
number of patients was that they seldom presented a 
stage of convalescence. Three days after they had 
been free from fever for 24 hours they were fit, 
without baggage, for a half or even a whole day's 
march. If the recovery had not been such a speedy 
one, says Krantz, how could all the wagons have been 
secured in that part of the country devastated by war 
for the transportation of the many hundreds of sick. 
At the beginning of the sickness a vomitium of 
ipecacuanha and tartarus stibiatus was administered 
(though on the march no real medical treatment was 
attempted) ; later on aether vitrioli with tinctura Va- 
lerianae, tinctura aromatica and finally tinctura chinae 
composita aurantiorum with good wine, etc., were 
given. It is interesting to read Krantz's statement of 
how much some physicians were surprised who had 
been accustomed to treat their patients in hospitals 
according to the principles of that period, which con- 
sisted in the exclusion of fresh air and the hourly 
administration of medicine. The mortahty of those 
treated on the march in the manner described was 
never more than 2 to 3 per cent. 

As already mentioned, an epidemic ophthalmy spread 
simultaneously with typhus among a large number 
of the troops returning from Courland, especially 
among those who formed the rear guard, in which was 

179 



the first East Prussian regiment to which Krantz was 
attached. 

In a far greater proportion the men of the two 
Prussian cavalry regiments and artillery batteries 
which Napoleon had taken with him to Moscow, that 
is into ruin, succumbed to the morbid potencies which 
acted upon them from all sides. 

On March 17th., 1813, York's corps entered Berhn, 
and from this time on contagious typhus disappeared 
almost completely in this army division. It is true 
that occasionally a soldier was attacked, but the num- 
ber of these was insignificant, and the character of the 
sickness was mild. Other internal diseases were also 
infrequent among these troops during that time. 
Epidemic ophthalmy, however, was very prevalent in 
the East Prussian regiment of infantry. From Feb- 
ruary, 1 81 3, until the day of the battle of Leipzig, 
700 men were treated for this disease. The character 
of this ophthalmy was mild, and under treatment the 
patients completely recovered within a few days (nine 
days at most) without any destructive lesion remain- 
ing. Quite different from this form was a severe 
ophthalmy which appeared in the army toward the 
end of the year 1813, and also during the years 1814 
and 1815. 



ISO 



AFTER THE SECOND: CROSSING OF 
THE NIEMEN 

Out of the enemy's country, on their way home, 
the soldiers had by no means reached the Hmit of their 
sufferings. Instead of being able now to take the much 
longed for and so much needed rest they were com- 
pelled to keep on marching in order to reach the 
meeting places designated to them, the principal one 
of which was Koenigsberg. 

Before entering Prussia they had to pass through 
a district which was inhabited by Lithuanians who 
had suffered very much from the army passing on 
the march to Moscow, and who now took revenge on 
the retreating soldiers. 

Most happy were the Germans of the army breath- 
ing again the air of their native country, and they 
could not restrain their feelings when they found 
themselves in clean dwellings. 

Their first occupation was to restore themselves in 
regard to cleanliness, to free their faces from a thick 
covering of dirt intensified by smoke which could be 
compared with a mask. All these unfortunate men 
wore this mask, but, as they said while in Moscow, 
without any desire to dance. Especially the better 
educated ones among them felt ashamed to present 
themselves in this condition in which they had dragged 
themselves through Russia and Poland. 

181 



On December i6th, von Borcke and his General, 
von Ochs, came to Schirwind, for the first time again 
in a Prussian city. Quarters were assigned to them 
in one of the best houses, the house of the widow of a 
Prussian officer. The lady, on seeing the two entering 
the house, was astonished to learn that they were a 
general with his adjutant, and that they should be 
her guests. Nothing about them indicated their rank, 
they were wrapped in sheepskins and rags full of 
dirt, blackened by the smoke from the camp fires, 
with long beards, frozen hands and feet. 

On January 2nd., 1813, these two officers arrived 
at Thorn. They considered themselves saved from 
the great catastrophe, when there, like in all places to 
which the wrecks of the grand army had come, typhus 
broke out. General von Ochs was stricken down with 
this disease, and his condition did not warrant any 
hopes for recovery. His son, however, who had gone 
through the whole retreat wounded and sick with 
typhus, whom the general and his adjutant had 
brought from Borodino in a wagon under incredible 
difficulties, had recovered and was able to nurse his 
father. 

And General von Ochs came home with his Adju- 
tant, von Borcke, on February 20th., 1813. 

Good people took pains to give their guests an 
opportunity to clean themselves thoroughly; the well- 
to-do had their servants attend to this process; in 
houses of the working class man and wife would give 
a helping hand. 

Sergeant Schoebel, together with a comrade, was 

quartered in the house of an honest tailor who, seeing 

how the soldiers were covered with lice, made them 

undress and, while the wife boiled the undergar- 

182 



meiits, the tailor ironed the outer clothing with a hot 
iron. 

Generous people tried to ameliorate in every manner 
possible the need which presented itself in such a 
pitiful form. 

Lieutenant Schauroth was sitting in despair at a 
table in an inn when one nobleman pressed a double 
Louisd'or into his hand and another placed his sleigh 
at the lieutenant's disposal to continue his journey. 

In Tapiau a carpenter's helper, himself a very poor 
man, begged among his friends to obtain a suit of 
clothes for Sergeant Steinmueller, whom he had never 
known before. 

But cases of this kind were the exeception ; in gen- 
eral the Prussian peasants remembered the many ex- 
cesses which, notwithstanding Napoleon's strict orders, 
the soldiers had committed on their march through 
East Prussia; they remembered the requisitions, they 
felt the plight of Prussia since the battle of Jena, and 
they revenged themselves on the French especially, but 
even the Germans of Napoleon's soldiers had to suffer 
from the infuriated, pitiless peasantry. Holzhausen 
describes scenes which were not less atrocious than 
those enacted by Russian peasants. 

And those who were treated kindly had the most 
serious difficulties: the sudden change from misery 
to regular life caused many serious disorders of the 
organs of digestion, innervation and circulation. All 
who have been in the field during our civil war know 
how long it took before they were able again to sleep 
in a bed. The Napoleonic soldiery describe how the 
warmth of the bed brought on the most frightful 
mental pictures ; they saw burnt, frozen, and mutilated 
comrades and had to try to find rest on the floor, 

1S3 



their nervous and their circulatory systems were ex- 
cited to an intolerable degree. After eating they vom- 
ited, and only gradually the ruined stomach became 
accustomed again, first, to thin soups and, later on, to 
a more substantial diet. 

How much they had suffered manifested itself in 
many ways after the thick crust had been removed 
from their body and, above all, after what had taken 
the place of shoes had been taken off. When Ser- 
geant Toenges removed the rags from his feet the 
flesh of both big toes came off. Captain Graven- 
reuth's boots had been penetrated by matter and ichor. 
Painful operations had to be performed to separate 
gangraenous parts. In Marienwerder Hochberg 
found all the attendants of Marshal Victor on the 
floor while a surgeon was amputating their limbs. 

But these were comparatively minor affairs, ampu- 
tated limbs played no roll when hundreds of thou- 
sands of mutilated corpses rested on the fields of 
Russia. 

An enemy more vicious than the one that had deci- 
mated the beautiful army was lying in wait for the 
last remainder which tried to rally again. 

It was the typhus that on the road from Moscow 
all through Germany and through France did its 
destructive work. 

This disease had been observed, as Dr. Geissler re- 
ports, first in Moscow, ravaged most terribly in Wilna 
and held a second great harvest in Koenigsberg, where 
the first troops arrived on December 20th. 

One-half of those who had been attacked suc- 
cumbed, although the hospitals of Koenigsberg were 
ideal ones compared with those of Wilna. 

Geissler and his colleague had to work beyond de- 

184 



scription to ameliorate and to console; help was im- 
possible in the majority of cases. 

The physicians of Koenigsberg were not as lucky 
as Dr. Krantz, whose patients were in the open air 
instead of being confined in a hospital. 

It is heartrending to read how so many who had 
withstood so much, escaped so many dangers, had to 
die now. One of these was General Eble, the hero 
of the Beresina. 



185 



LITERATURE. 

Beaupre, Moricheau. a Treatise on the Effects and Prop- 
erties of Cold with a Sketch, Historical and Medical, of the 
Russian Campaign, Translated by John Clendining with 
Appendix xviii, 375 pp., 8 vo. Edinburgh, Maclachnan and 
Stewart 1826. 

Bleibtreu, Carl. Die Grosse Armee. Zu ihrer Jahrhun- 
dertfeier. 3. Band. Smolensk — Moskau — Beresina. Stutt- 
gart, 1908. 

, Marschalle, Generale. Soldaten, Napoleon's I. 

Berlin (without date). 

VON BoRCKE^ JoHANN. Kriegerlebeu 1806-1815. Berlin, 1888. 

BuNousT, Martin. Considerations generales sur la congela- 
tion pendant I'ivresse, observee en Russie en 1812. Paris, 1817. 

Brandt. Aus dem Leben des Generals Heinrich von Brandt. 
Berlin, 1870. 

Carpon, Chirurgien. Majeur de la Grande Armee, Les 
Morts de Wilna. La France Medicale, 1902, pp. 457-63. 

Chuquet, Arthur. 1812 La Guerre de Russie. 3 vols. 
Paris, 1912. 

Ebstein, Dr. Wilhelm. Geh. Medizinalrat und Professor 
der Medizin an der Universitat Goettingen, Die Krankheiten 
im Feldzuge gegen Russland (1812). Eine geschichtlich- 
medizinische Studie. Stuttgart, 1902. 

GouRGAUD^ General G. de. Napoleons Gedanken und 
Erinnerungen, St. Helena, 1815-1818, Nach dem 1898 verof- 
fentlichten Tagebuch deutsch bearbeitet von Heinrich Conrad. 
7. Aufl. Stuttgart, 1901. Illustrated. 

HoLZHAUSEN, Paul. Die Deutschen in Russland, 1812. 
Leben und Leiden auf der Moskauer Heerfahrt. 2 vols. 
Berlin, 1912. 

Kerckhove, J. R. DE. Chirurgien-en-Chef des Hopitaux mili- 
tairs, Histoire des maladies observees a la grande Armee 

186 



frangaise pendant les campagnes de Russie en 1812. 2 vols. 
rAllemagne en 1813. Anvers, 1836. 

KiELLAND. Alexander L. Rings um Napoleon. Uebersetzt 
von Dr. Friedrich Leskien und Marie Leskien-Lie. 3 Auflage. 
2 vols. Leipzig, 1907. Illustrated. 

Krantz, Dr. Bemerkungen iiber den Gang der Krankhei- 
ten welche in der Konigl. preuss. Armee vom Ausbruche 
des Krieges im Jahr 1812 bis zu Ende des Waffenstillstandes 
(im Aug.) 1813 geherrscht haben. Magazin f. d. ges. Heil- 
kunde. Berlin, 181 7. 

LossBERG, Generallieutenant VON. Bricfc in die Hei- 
math. Geschrieben wahrend des Feldzugs 1812 in Russ- 
land. Leipzig, 1848. 

de Mazade, Ch. Le Comte Rostopchine. Revue des Deux 
Mondes, Sept. iS, 1863. 

Rambaud, Alf. La Grande Armee a Moscou d'apres les 
recits russes. Revue des Deux Mondes, July i, 1873. 

ScHEHL, Karl. Mit der grossen Armee 1812 von Krefeld 
nach Moskau. Erlebnisse des niederrheinischen Veteranen 
Karl Schehl. Herausgegeben von Seinem Grossneffen Ferd, 
Schehl, Krefeld. Diisseldorf, 1912. 

DE ScHERER, JoANNES. Historia morborum, qui in expeditione 
contra Russian anno MDCCCXII facta legiones Wuerttem- 
bergica invaserunt, praesertim eorem, qui frigore orti sunt. 
Inaugural Dissertation. Tuebingen, 1820. 
Thiers, A. Histoire du Consulat et de I'Empire. 
VON Yelin. In Russland 1812. Aus dem Tagebuch des 
wurttembergischen Offiziers von Yelin. Munchen, 191 1. 
Illustrated. 

Zelle, Dr. W. Stabsarzt A. D., Kreisarzt, 1812. Das Voel- 
kerdrama in Russland. 2. Auf. (Without date.) 



187 



INDEX 



Alcoholic Beverages, 17 
Alexander the Great, 71 
Anthouard, 100 

Basilius Monastery, 140 
Beaupre, 70, 88 
Belle-Isle, 72 
Beresina, 106 
Berlin, 178 
Berthier, 144 
Borcke, von, 18, 103 
Borisow, 109 
Borodino, 30 
Bourgeois, 38 
Bourgogne, 138 
Brandt, von, 150 
Braun, 175 

Carpon, 102 
Caulaincourt, i 
Cesarian Insanity, 4 
Charles XII, 71 
Chasseloup, no 
Commanders, 8, 9 
Compans, 93 
Constant, 102 
Corbineau, 109 
Corvisart, 5 



Crossing the Niemen, i 
Curtius, 71 

Description of diseases 100 

Years Ago, 36 
Dirschau, i77 
Dorogobouge, 94 
Doumerc, 125 
Dresden, 2 
Dysentery, n 

Eble, 109 
Ebstein, 19 
Egloff stein, 136 

Fournier, 121 
Friant, 93 
Furtenbach, 174 

Gangraene, loi 
Geissler, 133 
Ghjat, 76 
Girard, 132 
Glinka, 61 
Goina, 156 
Gordon, 159 
Gourgaud, 135 
189 



Gravenreuth, 184 
Grolmann, von, 142 

Happrecht, von, 87 
Hochberg, von, 132 
Holzhausen, 132 
Huber, 126 

Iliya, 152 
Inoralow, 86 

Jacobs, 136 
Jacqueminot, 11 1 
Jaroslawetz, 65 
Jews, 139 

Kalkreuter, von, 13 
Kalouga, 65 
Karpisz, 157 
Keller, von, 81 
Kerchhove, 28 
Kerner, von, 95 
Kohlreuter, von, 86 
Koenigsberg, loi 
Kowno, 137 
Krantz, 2>7, 1/6 
Krapowna, 132 
Krasnoe, 83 
Kuhn, 140 
Kvass, 168 
Kurakin, 5 
Kutusof, 68 

Laplander, 74 
Larrey, 105 
Lauriston, 114 
Legrand, 125 
Leppich's Airship, 60 
Loison, 132 
Lossberg, von, 21 
Louis XVIII, 96 



Maciejowski, 160 
Maison, 125 
Malczowski, 159 
Malodeszno, 132 
Maloijorolawez, 76 
Marienwerder, 177 
Mergentheim, 86 
Miednicki, 156 
Miloradovitch, 93 
Mohilew, 28 
Molodetchno, 150 
Montholon, 6 
Moscow, 41 
Moeve, 177 
Murat at Thorn, 22 

Ochmiana, 156 
Ochs, von, 182 
Oginsky, 132 
Ophthalmy, 179 
Orlowski, 171 
Orscha, 83 
Ostrowno, 28 

Partouneaux, 116 
Peppier, 175 
Phtheiriasis, 102 
Picart, 138 
Platow, 100 
Plechtchenissi, 150 
Polotsk, 29 
Prisoners of War, 162 

Retreat from Moscow, 64 
Ribes, 124 
Roeder, 139 
Roos, de, 126 
Rostopchine, 45 
Rudloff, 156 



Samoide, 74 
Schauroth, 183 



190 



Schehl, 162 
Scherer, von, 11, 74 
Schirwind, 182 
Schmetter, von, 86 
Schoebel, 182 
Shoes, 103 
Siberia, 73 
Smolensk, 29, 104 
Smorgoni, 132 
Soden, von, 141 
Steinmiiller, 183 
Strizzowan, 15 
Studianka, 109 
Suckow, 103 

Tapian, 183 
Tchitchakoff, 113 
Theuss, 142 
Thiers, 109 
Tilsit, 178 
Toenges, 132 
Tschaplitz, 113 
Tuchel, 178 
Turenne, 146 



Victor, 116 
Vop, 99 

Wasiienka, 158 
Westphalians, 32 
Wiasma, 94 
Wilna, 128 
Wilson, 20 
Witepsk, 28 
Wittgenstein, 116 
Wrede, von, 132 

Xenophon, 74 

Yelin, 141 
Yermaloff, 1 18 

Zayonchek, 125 
Zawnicki, 115 
Zazale, 99 
Zelinski, 157 
Zembin, 147 



191 



SUBSCRIPTION LIST. 

3 Dr. H. J. Achard, Ravenswood, Chicago. 

I Dr. Fred. H. Albee, 125 W. 58th Street, N. Y. City. 

I Dr. W. T. Alexander, 940 St. Nicholas Avenue, N. Y. City. 

I Rev. Mother Alphonsus, School of St Angela, N. Y. City. 

I Mr. Gustav Amberg, N. Y. City. 

I Dr. Ernest F. Apeldom, 21 13 Howard St., Philadelphia, Pa. 

I Dr. S. T. Armstrong, Hillbourne Farms, Katonah, N. Y. 

I Dr. M. Aronson, 1875 Madison Avenue, N. Y. City. 

I Dr. C. E. Atwood, 14 E. 60th Street, N. Y. City. 

I Dr John Waite Avery, 295 Atlantic Street, Stamford, Conn. 

I Dr. Arcadius Avellanus, 47 W. 52nd Street, N. Y. City. 

I Dr. Frederick A. Baldwin, 4500 Olive Street, St. Louis, Mo. 

I Dr. Richard T. Bang, 139 W. nth Street, N. Y. City. 

I Mr. R. G. Barthold, 57 W. 92nd Street, N. Y. City. 

I Dr, James E. Baylis, Medical Corps U. S. A., Ft. D. A. 

Russell, Wyo. 
I Mr. N. Becher, 361 Crescent Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
I Mr. E. Bilhuber, 45 John Street, N. Y. City. 
I Dr. G. F. Bond, 960 N. Broadway, Yonkers, N. Y. 
10 Hon. D. N. Botassi, Consul General of Greece, N. Y. City. 
I Dr. Arthur A. Boyer, 11 E. 48th Street, N. Y. City. 
I Dr. John W. Brannan, 11 W. 12th Street, N. Y. City. 
I Dr. G. E. Brewer, 61 W. 48th Street, N. Y. City. 
3 Dr. Ira C. Brown, Medical Army Corps, E. 3 Kinnean 

Apts., Seattle, Wash. 
I Dr. A. F. Brugman, 163 W. 85th Street, N. Y. City. 
I Dr. Peter A. Callan, 452 Fifth Avenue, N. Y. City. 
I Dr. Arch. M. Campbell, 36 First Avenue, Mt. Vernon, N. Y. 
I Dr. Arturo Carbonell, ist Lient. U. S. A., San Juan, Porto 

Rico. 
I Dr. C. E. Carter, Boston Building, Salt Lake City, Utah. 
I Dr. Geo. P. Castritsy, 230 W. 95th Street, N. Y. City. 

192 



I Miss Florence E. de Cerkez, 411 W. 114th Street, N Y. City. 
I Dr. H. N. Chapman, 3814 Washington Bl., St. Louis, Mo. 

1 Dr. F. R. Chambers, 15 Exchance Place, Jersey City, N. J. 

2 Mrs. Mary Lefferts-Claus, Brookwood, Cobham, Va. 
I Dr. Fred. J. Conzelmann, Wards Island, N. Y. City. 
I Dr. John McCoy, I57 W. 73r(i Street, N. Y. City. 

I Rev. D. F. Coyie, Crotona Parkway, 176th Street, N. Y. 
City. 

I Rt. Rev. Thos. F. Cusack, 142 E. 29th Street, N. Y. City. 

I Dr. F. L. Davis, 4902 Page BL, St. Louis, Mo. 

I Dr. A. E. Davis, 50 W. 37th Street, N. Y. City. 

I Mr. C. E. Dean, 37 Wall Street, N Y. City. 

I Mr. A. Drivas, 340-42 E. 33rd Street, N. Y. City. 

I Dr. Louis C. Duncan, Capt Med. Corps, U. S. A., Wash- 
ington, D. C. 

I Dr. J. H. Erling, Jr., 150 W. 96th Street, N. Y. City. 

I Mrs. Clinton Pinckney Farrell, 117 E. 21st Street, N. Y. 
City. 

I Dr. Albert Warren Ferris, The Glen Springs, Watkins, 
N. Y. 

I Dr. Geo. Fischer, 90 Auburn Street, Paterson, N. J. 

I Dr. H. Fischer, iii E. 81 st Street, N. Y, City. 

I Dr. Wm. F. Fluhrer, 507 Madison Avenue, N. Y. City. 

3 Dr. F. Foerster, 926 Madison Avenue, N. Y. City. 

I Dr. Russell S. Fowler, 301 DeKalb Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

I Dr. Louis Friedman, 262 W. 113th Street, N. Y. City. 

I Dr. Robt. M. Funkhouser, 4354 Olive Street, St. Louis, Mo. 

I Dr. A. E. Gallant, 540 Madison Avenue, N. Y. City. 

I Messrs F. Gerolimatos and Co., 194 Avenue B, N. Y. City. 

I Mr. Jose G. Garcia, 1090 St. Nicholas Avenue, N. Y. City. 

I Dr. Samuel M. Garlich, 474 State Street, Bridgeport, Conn. 

I Dr. H. J. Garrigues, Tryon, N. C. 

I Mrs. Isabella Gatslick, 519 W. 143rd Street, N. Y. City. 

I Dr. Arpad G. Gerster, 34 E. 75th Street, N. Y. City. 

I Mr. H. F. Glenn, 324 W. Washington Street, Fort Wayne, 

Ind. 
I Mr. J. Goldschmidt, Publisher Deutsche Med. Presse, 

Berlin, Germany. 
I Dr. Hermann Grad, 159 W. 120th Street, N. Y. City. 
I Mr. Gromaz von Gromadzinski, 365 Edgecombe Avenue, 

N. Y. City. 

193 



Dr. Jas. T. Gwathmey, 40 E. 41st Street, N. Y. City. 

Dr. H. R. Gunderman, Selby, South Dakota. 

Dr. F. J. Haneman, 219 Burnett Street, East Orange, N. J. 

Dr. Harold Hays, 11 W. 8ist Street, N. Y. City. 

Dr. Wm. Van V. Hayes, 34 W. 50th Street, N. Y. City. 

Dr. I. S. Haynes, 107 W. 85th Street, N. Y. City. 

Dr. Louis Heitzmann, no W. 78th Street, N. Y. City. 

Dr. Johnson Held, 616 Madison Avenue, N. Y. City. 

Mr. F. Herrmann, Z7 Wall Street, N. Y. City. 

Dr. Abraham Heyman, 40 E. 41st Street, N. Y. City. 

Dr. Thos. A. Hopkins, St. Louis, Mo. 

Dr. John Horn, 72 E. 92nd Street, N. Y. City. 

Dr. B. W. Hoagland, Woodbridge, N. J. 

Dr. Chas. H. Hughes, 3858 W. Pine BL, St. Louis, Mo. 

Dr. L. M. Hurd, 15 E. 48th Street, N. Y. City. 

Rev. Mother Ignatius, College of New Rochelle, N. Y. 

Dr. H. Illoway, 11 13 Madison Avenue, N. Y. City. 

Dr. C. J. Imperatori, 245 W. 102nd Street, N. Y. City. 

Miss Maud Ingersoll, 117 E. 21st Street, N. Y. City. 

Dr. Walter B. Jennings, 140 Wadsworth Avenue, N. Y. 

City. 
Dr. George B. Jones, ist Lieut. Med. Corps, Las Cascadas 

Panama Canal Zone. 
Dr. Oswald Joerg, 12 Schermerhorn Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Mr. John Kakavos, 636 Lexington Avenue, N. Y. City. 
Mr. Albert Karg, 469 Fourth Avenue, N. Y. City. 
Rev. Arthur C. Kenny, 408 W. 124th Street, N. Y. City. 
Dr. E. D. Kilbourne, Capt. Med. Corps, U. S. A., 

Columbus, O. 
Dr. H. Kinner, 1103 Rutges Street, St. Louis, Mo. 
Mr. Richard Kny, Pres. Kny Scheerer Co., N. Y. City. 
Dr. A. Knoll, Ludwigshafen, Germany. 
Dr. S. Alphonsus Knopf, 16 W. 95th Street, N. Y. City. 
Dr. S. J. Kopetzky, 616 Madison Avenue, N. Y. City. 
Dr. John E. Kumpf, 302 E. 30th Street, N. Y. City. 
Rev. Mother Lauretta, Middletown, N. Y. 
Dr. M. D. Lederman, 58 E. 75th Street, N. Y. City. 
5 Messrs. Lekas and Drivas, 17 Roosevelt Street, N. Y. City. 
5 Messrs. Lemcke and Buechner, 30 W. 27th Street, N. Y. 

City. 

194 



3 Dr. B. Leonardos, Director Museum of Inscriptions, 
Athens, Greece. 

I Dr. H. F. Lincoln, U. S. A., Ft. Apache, Arizona. 

I Dr. Forbes R. McCreery, 123 E. 40th Street, N. Y. City. 

I Miss Agnes McGinnis, 2368 Seventh Avenue, N. Y. City. 

I Dr. W. Duncan McKim, 1701 i8th Street N. W., Wash- 
ington, D. C. 

1 Dr. C. A. McWilliams, 32 E. 53rd Street, N. Y. City. 

2 Dr. Wm. Mabon, Wards Island, N. Y. City. 

I Dr. Chas. O. Maisch, State Infirmary, Tewksbury, Mass. 

I Mr. E. A. Manikas, 49 James Street, N. Y. City. 

I Mr. Edward J. Manning, 59 W. 76th Street, N. Y. City. 

3 Mr. Wm. Marko, 254 Bowery, N. Y. City. 

I Dr. L. D. Mason, 171 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
I Dr. Charles H. May, 698 Madison Avenue, N. Y. City. 
5 Rev. Isidore Meister, S.L.D., Marmaraneck, N. Y. 
I Mrs. Meixner, 476 Third Avenue, Astoria, N. Y. 

1 Dr. Alfred Melzer, 785 Madison Avenue, N. Y. City. 

2 Mr. George Merck, Llewellyn Park, West Orange, N. J. 
I Mr. Frank Miglis, 1-5 New Bowery, N. Y. City. 

I Dr. Kenneth W. Millican, London, England. 

1 Mrs. Maria G. Minekakis, 153 W. 22nd Street, N. Y. City. 

2 Mr. Epominondas Minekakis, 366 Sixth Avenue, N. Y. City. 
I Professor P. D. de Monthule, 97 Hamilton Place, N. Y. 

City. 
I Dr. Robert T. Morris, 616 Madison Avenue, N. Y. City. 
I Dr. Wm. J. Morton, 19 E. 28th Street, N. Y. City. 
I Dr. J. B. Murphy, 104 So. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, 111. 

1 Miss Mary Murphy, 233 Eighth Street, Jersey City, N. J. 

2 Mr. Wm. Neisel, 44-60 E. 23rd Street. N. Y. City. 

2 Dr. Rupert Norton, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, 

Md. 
I Dr. M. C. O'Brien, 161 W\ 122nd Street, N. Y. City. 
I Mr. Adolf Olson, 383 E. 136th Street, N. Y. City. 
I Mr. O. G. Orr, ZJ Wall Street, N. Y. City. 
I Dr. Francis R. Packard, 302 S. 19th Street, Philadelphia, 

Pa. 
I Dr. Charles E. Page, 120 Tremont Street, Boston, Mass. 
I Dr. Roswell Park, 510 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, N. Y. 
I Dr. Ralph L. Parsons, Ossining, N. Y. 
I Mr. E. B. Pettel, 308 E. isth Street, N. Y. City. 

195 



I Dr. Daniel J. Phelan, 123 W. 94th Street, N. Y. City. 

I Dr. C. W. Pilgrim, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 

I Dr. J. L. Pomeroy, 212 Am. Nat. Bank, Monrovia, Cal. 

I Dr. R. S. Porter, Captain Med. Corps, U. S. A., Fort 
Wm. H. Seward, Alaska. 

I Dr. M. Rabinowitz, 1261 Madison Avenue, N. Y. City, 

I Dr. Chas. Rayersky, Liberty, N. Y. 

I Dr. R. G. Reese, 50 W. 52nd Street, N. Y. City. 

I Dr. Pius Renn, 171 W. 95th Street, N. Y. City. 

I Miss Jennie M. Rich, 624 S. Washington Square, Phila- 
delphia, Pa. 

I Dr. Jno. D. Riley, Mahanoy City, Pa. 

I Dr. A. Ripperger, 616 Madison Avenue, N. Y. City. 

1 Dr. John A. Robinson, 40 E. 41st Street, N. Y. City. 

2 Mr. Hermann Roder, 366 Central Avenue, Jersey City, N. J. 
I Dr. Max Rosenthal, 26 W. 90th Street, N. Y. City. 

I Mr. Gregory Santos, 32 Madison Street, N. Y. City. 

I Dr. Thos. E. Satterthwaite, 7 E. 8oth Street, N. Y. City. 

I Dr. Reginald H. Sayre, 14 W. 48th Street, N. Y. City. 

I Mr. M. F. Schlesinger, 47 Third Avenue, N. Y. City. 

I Dr. W. S. Schley, 24 W. 45th Street, N. Y. City. 

I Mrs. Schoenfeld, 374 Washington Avenue, Astoria, N. Y. 

I Dr. G. Schroeder, Schoemberg O. A. Neuenbiirg, Wuert- 

temberg, Germany. 
I Dr. P. David Schultz, 601 W. 156th Street, N. Y. City. 
I Dr. E. S. Sherman, 20 Central Avenue, Newark, N. J. 
I Mr. James S. Smitzes, Tarpon Springs, Fla. 
I Dr. John B. Solley, Jr., 968 Lexington Avenue, N. Y. City. 
5 Messrs. G. E. Stechert & Co., 151-155 W. 25th Street, N. Y. 

City. 
I Dr. Heinrich Stern, 250 W. 73d Street, N. Y. City. 
I Dr. Geo. David Stewart, 61 W. 50th Street, N. Y. City. 
I Dr. Chas. Stover, Amsterdam, N. Y. 

3 Dr. August Adrian Strasser, 115 Beech Street, Arlington, 

N.J. 
I Dr. Alfred N. Strouse, 79 W. 50th Street, N. Y. City. 
I Surgeon General's Office, Washington, D. C. 
I Mr. Fairchild N. Terry, 984 Simpson Street, N. Y. City. 
I Mr. Vasilios Takis, 2060 E. 15th Street, Brooklyn, N. Y, 
I Mr. John G. Theophilos, Coney Island, N. Y. 
I Dr. Franz Torek, 1021 Madison Avenue, N. Y. City. 

196 



I Dr. Ira Otis Tracy, State Hospital Flatbush, Brooklyn, 

N. Y. 
I Dr. Henry H. Tyson, 47 W. 51st Street, N. Y. City. 
I Professor Dr. H. Vierordt, Tuebingen, Germany. 
I Dr. Hermann Vieth, Ludwigshafen, Germany. 
I Dr. Agnes C. Vietor, Trinity Court, Boston, Mass. 
I Mr. George Villios, 31 Oliver Street, N. Y. City. 
I Mr. John Villios, 31 Oliver Street, N. Y. City. 
I Dr. Antonie P. Voislawsky, 128 W. 59th Street, N. Y. City. 

1 Dr. Cornelius Doremus Van Wagenen, 616 Madison 

Avenue, N. Y. City. 

2 Rev. Thos. W. Wallace, 921 Morris Avenue, N. Y. City. 
I Dr. Jas. J. Walsh, no W. 74th Street, N. Y. City. 

I Dr. Josephine Walter, 61 W. 74th Street, N. Y. City. 
I Dr. Henry W, Wandles, 9 E. 39th Street, N. Y. City. 
I Dr. Freeman F. Ward, 616 Madison Avenue, N. Y. City. 

1 Dr. Edward J. Ware, 121 W. 93rd Street, N. Y. City. 

2 Kommerzienrat Richard Weidner, Gotha, Germany. 
I Dr. Sara Welt-Kakels, 71 E. 66th Street, N. Y. City. 

I Dr. H. R. Weston, Lieut. U. S. A., Key West Barracks, Fla. 
I Dr. Thos. H. Willard, i Madison Avenue, N. Y. City. 
I Dr. M. H. Williams, 556 W. 150th Street, N. Y. City. 
I Dr. Linsly R. Williams, 882 Park Avenue, N. Y. City. 
I Dr. Frederick N. Wilson, 40 E. 41st Street, N. Y. City. 

1 Dr. Fred. Wise, 828 Lexington Avenue, N. Y. City. 

2 Mr. A. Wittemann, 250 Adams Street. Brooklyn, N. Y. 
I Miss E. Wittemann, 17 Ocean Terrace, Stapleton, S. 1. 
I Dr. David G. Yates, 79 W. 104th Street, N. Y. City. 

I Professor Dr. Zimmerer, Regensburg, Germany. 

I Mr. H. H. Tebault, 624 Madison Avenue. 

I Dr. R. L. Sutton, U. S. N., Kansas City, Mo. 

I Mr. L. Schwalbach, 12 Judge Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

I Mr. N. Becker, 361 Crescent Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

I Mr. Anton Emmert, 563 Hart Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

I Dr. Ernest V. Hubbard, 11 E. 48th Street, N. Y. City. 

I Dr. J. A. Koempel, 469 E. 156th Street, N. Y. City. 

I Dr. John D. Riley, 200 E. Mahonoy Ave., Mahonoy City, Pa. 

I F. Le Roy Satterlee, 6 W. 56th Street, N. Y. City. 

I Dr. P. F. Straub, Major, Med. Corps, U. S. Army, Manila, 

P. L 
I Dr. John McCoy, 157 W. 73rd Street, N. Y. City. 

19T 



OTHER BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR. 
PHYSICIAN VS. BACTERIOLOGIST. 

BY PROF. 0. ROSENBACH,, M. D 

Translated from the German by Achilles Rose^ M. D., 
New York. 

This volume embraces Rosenbach's discussion on the clini- 
co-bacteriologic and hygienic problems based on original 
investigations. They represent a contest against the over- 
growth of bacteriology, principally against the overzealous 
enthusiasm of orthodox bacteriologists. 

Partial Contents — Significance of Animal Experiments 
for Pathology and Therapy, The Doctrine of Efficacy of 
Specifics, Disinfection in the Test Tube and in the Living 
Body, Should Drinking Water and Milk be Sterilized? In 
How Far Has Bacteriology Advanced Diagnosis and Cleared 
Up Aetiology? The Mutations of Therapeutic Methods; Stim- 
ulation, Reaction, Predisposition; Bacterial Aetiology of 
Pleurisy; The Significance of Sea Sickness; Pathogenesis of 
Pulmonary Phthisis ; Constitution and Therapy ; Care of 
the Mouth in the Sick; Some Remarks on Influenza; The 
Koch Method; The Cholera Question; Infection; Orotherapy; 
Undulations of Epidemics. 

The Post Graduate, New York: "It is a rich storehouse 
for every physician and will give much food for thought." 

i2mo, Cloth. 455 Pages. $1.50, net; By Mail, $1.66. 

CARBONIC ACID IN MEDICINE. 

BY ACHILLES ROSE^ M. D. 

It sets forth facts about the healing qualities of carbonic 
acid gas which were known centuries ago and then passed 
into disuse until they had become unjustly forgotten. 

198 



The Contents — The Physiology and Chemistry of Respi- 
ration ; History of the Use of Carbonic Acid in Therapeu- 
tics; Inflation of the Large Intestine with Carbonic-acid 
Gas for Diagnostic Purposes; The Therapeutic Effect of 
Carbonic-acid Gas in Chloriasis, Asthma, and Emphysema 
of the Lungs, in the Treatment of Dy sentry and Mem- 
branous Enteritis and Colic, Whooping-cough, Gynecological 
Affections; The Effects of Carbonic-acid Baths on the Circu- 
lation; Rectal Fistula Promptly, Completely, and Permanently 
Cured by Means of Carbonic-acid Applications; Carbonic-acid 
in Chronic Suppurative Otitis and Dacryocystitis; Carbonic- 
acid Applications in Rhinitis, 

" From this little volume the practitioner can derive much 
valuable information, while the physiologist will find a point 
of departure for new investigations." — The Post-Graduate, 
New York. Illustrated. i2mo. Cloth, 268 Pages. $1.00, net; 
By Mail, $1.10. 



ATONIA GASTRICA 

BY DR. ACHILLES ROSE. 

Atonia Gastrica, by which term is understood abdominal 
relaxation and ptosis of viscera, is a subject of vast impor- 
tance, as has been proved by the avalanche of literature it 
has caused during the last decade. The relation of some 
ailments to abdominal relaxation has only been recognized 
since the author's method of abdominal strapping has been 
adopted and extensively practised. This book gives in attrac- 
tive form all we know in regard to aetiology; it describes 
and treats on the significance of the plaster strapping as 
the most rational therapeutic measure. The illustrations 
given with the description will prove of much practical value 
to those who wish to give the method a trial, but who have 
not had the opportunity to see the Rose belt applied. 

i2mo. Cloth. Price, $1.00, net. 

Funk & Wagnalls Company, Publishers, 44-60 East Twenty- 
third Street, New York. 



199 



MEDICAL GREEK. 
Collection of Papers On Medical Onomatology. 

By Dr. Achilles Rose, Honorary Member of the Medical 

Society of Athens. Member of the Committee 

on Nomenclature of the Medical 

Society of Athens. 

G. E. STECHERT & COMPANY, 151-155 West 25th Street, 
New York. Price, $1.00. 

Dr. James P. Warbasse of Brooklyn, N. Y., wrote con- 
cerning this book : " I am much in sympathy with your 
efforts to secure more uniformity and correctness in our 
medical words. While you may not be wholly satisfied with 
the results which you are able to secure or with the recep- 
tion which your work has received at the hands of your 
colleagues, still it is continually bearing fruit. The cam- 
paign which you have carried on has awakened a general 
and widespread interest in the matter, and is bound to accom- 
plish great good. I have read with much interest your cor- 
respondence with the Academy of Medicine. It shows an 
admirable persistent enthusiasm on one hand and a successful 
postponing diplomacy on the other." 

"For the work done by you, your name will be praised by 
generations." 

In order to understand the onomatology question in medi- 
cine as it stands at present one has to read this book. 



CHRISTIAN GREECE AND LIVING GREEK. 

By Dr. Achilles Rose. 

New York: 

G. E. STECHERT & CO., 151-1S5 West 2Sth Street. 
Price, $1.00. 

CONTENTS. 

Preface. — A Political Retrospect on Greece. — The Hos- 
tility of the Great European Powers towards Greece 
Since the Establishment of the Greek Kingdom. — Pa- 

200 



cifico Affair and Lord Palmerston. — Cretan Insurrec- 
tions. — Latest War.— Greece's Future, . pages i-xiii. 

Chapter I. — An Historical Sketch of Greek. — Relation of 
the Greek of To-day to the Greek of the Attic Ora- 
tors. — Exposure of many Erroneous Views which 
have been Prevailing until Recently, . . page i 

Chapter IL — Proper Pronounciation of Greek. — The 
Only True Historical Pronounciation is the One of 
the Greeks of To-day; the Erasmian is Arbitrary, 
Unscientific, is a Monstrosity, . . . page 40 

Chapter HL — The Byzantines.— Misrepresentations in 
Regard to Byzantine History. — Our Gratitude due 
to the Byzantine Empire, page T] 

Chapter IV. — The Greeks under Turkish Bondage. — 
The Misery into which the Greek World was Thrown 
during the Centuries of Turkish Bondage, the Won- 
derful Rising of the Greek People from the Lethargy 
caused by Slavery, and their Spiritual and Political 
Resurrection, page 131 

Chapter V. — The Greek War of Independence, and the 
European Powers. — The most Incomprehensible 
Wrongs Done to the Heroic Greek Race by the 
Powers while it was Struggling for Liberty after 
Long Centuries of Terrific Vicissitudes, under Cir- 
cumstances which Presented More Difficulties than 
any Other Nation had Encountered. — Philhellen- 
ism, . . page 168 

Chapter VI. — The Kingdom of Greece before the War 
of 1897. — Continuation of the Hostility towards the 
Greeks Since a Part, Part Only of the Nation was 
Set Free, page 195 

Chapter VII. — Greek as the International Language of 
Physicians and Scholars in General.^— The Necessity 
of Introducing Better Methods of Teaching Greek in 
Schools in Order that Greek may become the Inter- 
national Language of Scholars, . . . . page 226 

Epilogue.— Calumniations Against the Greeks of To-day 
and the Refutation of These, .... page 269 

List of Subscribers, page 291 

201 



EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS AND REVIEWS IN 
JOURNALS. 

His Grace, Archbishop Corrigan, New York, wrote the 
day after having received the book : " Dear Doctor, Many 
thanks for your great courtesy in sending me a copy of your 
charming work, ' Christian Greece and Living Greek.' I 
have already begun its perusal, the chapter on the proper 
' Pronunciation of Greek ' naturally inviting and claiming 
immediate attention. I think you laugh Erasmus out of 
court. Now I must begin, if leisure be ever afforded me, to 
dip into Greek again, to learn to pronounce your noble lan- 
guage correctly. Congratulating you on your success, and 
with best wishes, I am, dear Doctor, 

" Very faithfully yours, 

" M. A. Corrigan, Archbishop." 

Dr. Achilles Rose. 

S. Stanhope Orris, Professor of Greek in Princeton Uni- 
versity, who was Director of the American School at Athens 
from 1888 to 1889, who kindly revised the manuscript, wrote : 

" I think that the impression which the manuscript has made 
on my mind will be made on the minds of all who read your 
book — that it is the production of an able, laborious, enthu- 
siastic, scholarly man, who deserves the gratitude and admira- 
tion of all who labor to perpetuate an interest in the language, 
literature, and history of Greece." 

Again, after having received the book, the same Philhellene 
writes to the author : " Professor Cameron, my colleague, 
who has glanced at the book, pronounces it eloquent, as I also 
do, and unites with me in ordering a copy for our University 
Library." 

Hon. Eben Alexander, former United States Minister to 
Greece, Professor of Greek, North Carolina University: "My 

202 



dear Dr. Rose, The five copies have been received, and I en- 
close check in payment. ... I am greatly pleased with the 
book. It shows everywhere the fruit of your far-reaching 
studies, and your own enthusiastic interest has enabled you 
to state the facts in a strongly interesting way. I hope that 
it will meet with favor. I wonder whether you have sent 
a copy to the King? He would like to see it, I know. . . . 
I am sincerely your friend." 

William F. Swahler, Professor of Greek, De Pauw Uni- 
versity, Greencastle, Ind., writes : " I received the book to- 
day in fine order, and am much pleased so far as I have had 
time to , peruse the same." 

Thomas Carter, Professor of Greek and Latin, Centenary 
College, Jackson, La., writes : "Am highly delighted with 
Dr. Rose's work; have not had the time to read it all yet, 
but from what I have been able to get over, am more than 
ever convinced of his accurate learning, his profound scholar- 
ship, and his devoted enthusiasm for his beloved Hellas." 

A. V. Williams Jackson, Professor of Oriental Languages, 
Columbia University, New York : " The welcome volume ar- 
rived this morning and is cordially appreciated. This note 
is to express my thanks and to extend best wishes for con- 
tinued success." 

Mr. John C. Palmaris, of Chicago : " E&ypcafxcovQv "Ey-yriv. 
Dr. Achilles Rose. Dear Sir, Allow me to express my thanks 
from the bottom of my heart as a Greek for your sincere 
love for my beloved country 'Hellas,' and to congratulate 
you for your noble philological and precious work, ' Chris- 
tian Greece and Living Greek,' with the true Gnomikon. 
'It is shameful to defame Greece continually.' I received 
to-day the three copies for me and one for my brother-in- 
law (Prince Rodokanakis), which I despatched immediately 
to Syra." 

Dr. a. F. Currier, New York : " Dear Dr. Rose, I received 
your book with great pleasure. It is very attractively made 
up, and I am looking forward to the pleasure of reading it. 
As I get older I am astonished at the charm with which 
memory recalls history, myth, and poetry in the study of the 

203 



classics long ago. With sincerest wishes for your success, 
believe me yours, Philhellenically." 

C. Everett Conant^ Professor of Greek and Latin, Lincoln 
University, Lincoln, 111. : " I wish personally to thank you 
for the effort you are making to set before us Americans 
the true status of the modern Greek language in its relation 
with the classic speech of Pericles' day. With best wishes 
for the success of your laudable undertaking, I am cordially 
yours." 

Mr. H. E. S. Slagenhaup, Taneytown, Md. : " Dr. Achilles 
Rose. Dear Sir, Your book, 'Christian Greece and Living 
Greek,' reached me this morning. Although it arrived only 
this morning I have already read the greater part of it. It 
is a work for which every Philhellene must feel truly grate- 
ful to you. Not only do I admire the care, the industry, and 
the scholarly research which are evident on every page of 
this valuable exposition of Hellenism and Philhellenism, but 
I most heartily indorse every sentiment expressed in it. I 
rejoice that such a book has appeared; I hope it may have 
a wide influence favorable to the just cause of Hellas; and I 
pledge myself to render whatever assistance may lie in my 
power in the furtherance of that cause. The disasters of the 
past year have in no wise shaken my faith in the Hellenic 
race; on the contrary, they have increased my admiration for 
the brave people who undertook a war against such odds 
in behalf of their oppressed brethren; and I believe that the 
cause which sustained such regrettable defeats on the plains 
of Thessaly last year will eventually triumph in spite of oppo- 
sition." 

Franklin B. Stephenson, M. D., Surgeon United States 
Navy. "United States Marine Corps Recruiting Office, Bos- 
ton : My dear Doctor, Permit me to write you of my pleas- 
ure and satisfaction in reading your excellent book on 
Christian Greece and Greek; and to express my appreciation 
of the clear and vivid manner in which you have portrayed 
the life and work of the Hellenes, who have done so much 
in preserving and transmitting to us the learning in science 
and art of the ancient world. . . . Your reference to the emi- 
nent professor of Greek who said that there was 'no literature 

204 



in modern Greek worthy of the name/ reminds me of the 
remark of a man, prominent in financial and social circles, 
who told me that there was nothing in Russian to make it 
worth while studying the language [Dr. Stephenson is a well- 
known linguist — mastering eight languages, Russian among 
them]. I wish you all success in the work of letting the light 
of truth, as to Greek, shine in the minds of those who do not 
know their own ignorance." 

Mortimer Lamson Earle, Professor Bryn Mawr College, 
Bryn Mawr, Pa., who mastered so well the living Greek 
language that Greeks of education pronounce their admira- 
tion of his elegant style, saying that it is most wonderful how 
well a foreigner writes their own language : " The book has 
been duly received, but I have not as yet had time to read 
all of it. However, I have read enough to know that, though 
I differ with you in many details, I am heartily in accord 
with you in earnestly supporting the cause of a people and 
language to which I am. sincerely attached. I am glad that 
you speak so highly in praise of the Klephtic songs. I hope 
that your book may do much good." 

Louis F. Anderson, Professor of Greek, Whitman College, 
Walla Walla, Wash.: "From my rapid inspection I regard 
it as superior even to my anticipations. I trust that it will 
have an extensive sale and corresponding influence. It is 
the book needed just now. I hope to write more in the 
future." 

Mr. C. Mehltretter, New York: "After due reading of 
your book I feel it my duty to congratulate you on same. 
True, you may have received so many congratulatory notes 
that the layman's opinion will be of little value. Nevertheless, 
I can assure you the perusal of your book caused me more 
pleasure and instruction than any other I heretofore read on 
the subject. I assure you it will find a prominent place in 
my library, and any time in future you should again write 
on any subject consider me one of your subscribers." 

William J. Seelye, Professor of Greek, University of 
Wooster, Ohio: "Dr. Rose's book received yesterday. I 
have already read enough to see that the author is not only 
full of his subject, but treats it with judicial mind," 

205 



Joseph Collins^ M. D., Professor Post-Graduate School of 
Medicine, New York : " The chapters of your book that 
I have read have been entertaining and instructive." 

Isaac A. Parker^ Professor of Greek and Latin, Lombard 
University, Galesburg, 111. : " I wish to say to Dr. Rose that, 
although I have yet had time only to glance hastily at the 
book, the few sentences which I have read have interested 
me very much, and it will give me much pleasure to give it 
a careful perusal, as I see that it contains much valuable in- 
formation. The thanks of those interested in Greece and 
Greek literature are due to Dr. Rose for giving them this 
book. Praise is due to the printer for his excellent work." 

Charles R. Pepper, Professor Central University, Rich- 
mond, Ky. : "Your book, ' Christian Greece and Living 
Greek,' came duly to hand. I am much pleased with it. I 
hope the interest of the Philhellenes in the United States 
may be quickened to a livelier degree in Greece and Greek 
affairs, and that your book may accomplish a good work 
in putting before the people generally the claims of Hellas 
to the gratitude, love, and admiration of the civilized world." 

[From the Troy Daily Times, Feb. 7, i^'pS.] 
" Christian Greece and Living Greek," by Dr. Achilles 
Rose. In view of the Hellenic defeat in the war with Turkey 
a year ago the future of Greece to many minds is rather 
vague and clouded. This idea is due to lack of knowledge 
of Greece history and character. Were Americans more fa- 
miliar with the character of the Hellenes and their traditions 
none would doubt that the descendants of those great figures 
of the heroic age have a mission before them and that this 
mission will be accomplished in spite of Turkish bullets and 
the selfishness of the other European powers. Dr. Rose in 
this volume offers a clear presentation of the condition of 
Greece at the present time. His work deals not only with 
the nation, but with the language, and the history of each 
is traced from its earliest beginnings down to the present 
time. The reading of this book will afford a much clearer 
understanding of the causes leading to the war of 1897 than 
is generally possessed. Of especial interest is an introduction 
written by one of the best known Greeks now resident in 
this country, who reviews the causes leading to the great 

206 



war, and clearly shows the shamefulness of the course pur- 
sued by the great European powers in leaving Hellas to her 
fate. Some of the statements made are significant, notably 
the following: " If Greece has sinned, it was on the side of 
compassion for her oppressed children and coreligionists. She 
is bleeding from every pore of her mutilated body, but there 
is a Nemesis which sooner or later will overtake those who 
rejoice now at her defeat and humiliation." New York: Peri 
Hellados Publishing Office. 

From Rev. Henry A, Buttz, Dean Theological Seminary, 
Madison, N. J. : " My dear Sir, I have read with interest 
your book 'Christian Greece and Living Greek,' and have 
found it full of valuable suggestion. It discusses many 
points of great interest, giving a more correct view of the 
true condition of the Greece of to-day and of its relation to 
its glorious past. I am especially pleased with your forcible 
putting of the importance of adopting the modern Greek pro- 
nunciation in our study of the Greek language. I wish your 
book a wide circulation." 

F. A. Packard, M. D., Kearney, Neb. : " Dear Sir and 
Doctor, Your book on ' Christian Greece and Living Greek ' 
received. I m.ust say it is a grand work and I prize it highly 
and consider it a valuable addition to my library. Wishing 
you success, etc." 

A. Jacobi, M. D., Professor Columbia University : " Dear 
Dr. Rose, The perusal of your book has been a source of 
much pleasure to me. If Hellas has as enthusiastic men and 
women among her own people as you are, a friend in a foreign 
nation, she will have a promising future." 

Mr. Louis Prang, Boston, Mass. : " ' Christian Greece and 
Living Greek' has given me not only great pleasure to read 
but I have learned more about Greece, as it was and as it 
really is, than I ever knew before. Your book is exceedingly 
valuable to a man like me who desires reliable information 
on this very interesting people and who lacks the time for 
personal investigation or much book-reading, which after all, 
to judge by your statements, would not lead to a correct 
appreciation of present conditions. Your personal experi- 
ence based on large and varied observations among the peo- 

207 



pie, and your evidently thorough study of past history make 
your judgment acceptable, and your manner of giving it to 
the reader is eminently interesting and engaging, and above 
all convincing. I do not think that what I have said here 
will be of much interest or satisfaction to you, as coming 
from a simple business man, but I wished to thank you for 
the enjoyment your book has given me and to tell you that 
you have made at least one convert for the cause of living 
Greek." 

A Greek Lady, living in Cairo, Egypt, writes to her father : 
" I thank you above all for the book of Dr. Rose you were so 
kind as to send me, and which I am perusing with the great- 
est interest. One can see that Dr. Rose is a friend of our 
dear country; if there were more like him we would not be 
so run down by ignorant and spiteful people." 

[From New York Medical Journal, March 5th, i8g8.] 

Dr. Rose's well-known enthusiasm for the Greeks, their 
country, and particularly their language has resulted in the 
production of a very interesting book. Physicians will nat- 
urally be most interested in the concluding chapter, which 
treats of Greek as the international language of physicians 
and scholars in general, but from cover to cover there is 
nothing commonplace in the book; it is quite readable 
throughout. We congratulate Dr. Rose on the appearance 
of the volume in so attractive a form. 

[From The Independant, March 24th, iSgS.] 

Dr. Rose stands forth in his volume the champion of mod- 
ern Greece, the Greeks and their wrongs. He tells the story 
as it has been developed in this century, and recites the older 
history and appeals to the intelligent Christian world against 
the Great Assassin of Constantinople. He believes the mod- 
ern Greek tongue as now spoken and written to be the ideal 
one for international intercourse, especially on scientific mat- 
ters, and repudiates the Erasmian method of pronunciation. 
His account of the Greeks themselves is encouraging. He 
claims for them a strict morality. Theft he declares un- 
known, and drunkenness. The book is certainly eloquent and 
inspiring. 

208 



[From The Living Church, Chicago, March igth, iSgS.] 

This is a most interesting book. There is not a dull page 
in it. It is made up of various lectures delivered by the 
accomplished author, at different times, on the Greek lan- 
guage and history. Magnificent as Gibbon's work is on the 
Byzantine Empire, the contemptuous tone he uses toward it 
has much misled modern writers and readers in their esti- 
mation of that wonderful monarchy. A state which lasted as 
that did in the face of so many difficulties, could not have been 
so badly governed as Gibbon implies. That Dr. Rose shows, and 
a good, English, up-to-date Byzantine history is greatly to be 
desired. Dr. Rose's account of the Greek struggle for 
independence is vivid, patriotic, and full of information on a 
subject that few people know much about. The most inter- 
esting part of the book to scholars is the chapters on modern 
Greek. Dr. Rose says : " The living Greek of to-day shows 
much less deviation from ttie Greek of two thousand and 
more years ago than an}^ other European language shows in 
the course of centuries." This statement will surprise many, 
but it is literall}^ true. Dr. Rose gives the history of the 
creation of the modern Greek literary language on the lines 
of classic Greek, and he advocates the use of modern Greek, 
especially in the matter of pronunciation, in teaching classic 
Greek. In all this we go with him heartily, and his views 
are being adopted in many colleges in Europe and America. 

[From the Evangelist, February 17th, i8g8.'\ 
We commend this book to all who would know what the 
" concert of European powers" means to a struggling king- 
dom and people used as a " buffer state" between the un- 
speakable Turk and civilized " Westerns." The historical 
chapters of the work are a revelation of the intricacies of 
" the disgraceful deals of the great powers whose victim the 
kingdom of Greece has been." The story is simply told with 
great candor and quiet reserve, but it carries a lesson that 
moves the heart and stirs the indignation of dispassionate 
and perhaps indifferent observers. How hard is it for a 
people like the Greeks or the Armenians to get a hearing ! 
What " political necessities" demand silence ; what diplomatic 
falsehoods, deceptions, subterfuges are indulged by ministries 
and cabinets that are called Christian ! The history of Greece 

209 



from the fall of the Byzantine Empire up to this hour is a 
tragedy, and the final deliverance in 1828 was more painfully 
sad and disappointing, more shamefully mismanaged and 
limited, more wretchedly hampered and hindered in every pos- 
sible way, than is easily conceivable, considering the popular 
sentiment roused by such Philhellenes as Byron, Erskine, 
Gladstone, and the Genevan banker Eynard. Think of the 
massacre of Chios, and then hear men talking of Navarino as 
a blunder ! 

But let our readers turn to the pages of Dr. Rose's book 
for information. There is a historical sketch of the Byzan- 
tine Empire, showing the most extraordinary misrepresenta- 
tions which have held on till very recently ; a second chapter 
exposes the " erroneous views which have prevailed in regard 
to the relation of the Greek of to-day to the Greek of the 
classical period," with a chapter on " absurd ideas in vogue 
in regard to Greek pronunciation" ; a fourth chapter gives 
the misery of the Turkish bondage and " their spiritual and 
political resurrection" ; then follows one on the wrongs to 
the Greeks in their struggle for liberty, in which some Ameri- 
can shipping firms are involved and " Mr. W. J. Stillman" is 
pretty severely handled ; then " the kingdom of Greece before 
the war of 1897," and an " Epilogue," which should be read 
before Dr. Hepworth has time to get in his Armenian dis- 
coveries. This is the merest hint as to the intrinsic interest 
and pertinency of the book, the only unprejudiced and pa- 
triotic plea for the Greeks which has escaped the censor- 
ship of the press and politics and politicians. Let the Greeks 
be heard ! Let the list of Philhellenes grow to a grand 
majority in Europe and America that shall make itself heard 
in behalf of justice and humanity ! 

The scholarly chapters are as admirable as the statesman- 
like and patriotic ones. They should lead to a Greek revival. 
We think the university wars of " Greeks and Trojans" might 
be fought over again. We join the Greeks! 

His Excellency Kleon Rangabe, Greek Ambassador in 
Berlin, writes : " Many sencere thanks for the kind trans- 
mission of your most interesting book. ... I can congratulate 
you most sincerely. You treat all the important subjects in 
so exhaustive and conclusive a manner that all those who 
seek for truth must necessarily be convinced. We are in 

210 



consequence indebted to j^ou for a valuable service, but your 
own American countrymen ought also to be thankful to you, 
for every apostle of truth is in his way a benefactor of hu- 
manity. I hope that the days of the Erasmian absurdity, 
which belongs to the Dark Ages and is unworthy of American 
scholars, are now numbered. I hope that your book will also 
appear in German as it would do a great deal of good here. 
What you say about the system applied to Greek studies in 
general is also perfectly correct. These studies are still and 
will always be the soul of every liberal education, and, con- 
stantly undermined by the materialistic tendencies of the age, 
they can only be saved through a fundamental change of this 
system. The language must henceforth be taught as a living 
one, having never ceased to live for a moment since the days 
of Homer." 

Neologos, an Athenian paper, writes a long article, review- 
ing the book and its author's works in general. " The author's 
name is already known to us by his lectures on Greece which 
have been published here. Mr. Rose belongs to those who 
will persevere to establish an idea; obstacles and difficulties 
can only serve to such characters to spur their ardor. Mr. 
Rose is inspired by the noble idea to disseminate a better 
knowledge of Greece of to-day and to enlist sympathies in 
her behalf. He is combating the influence of an impossible 
Grecophobe press. People abroad will change their opinion 
when they know our true history, our character, our morals, 
customs, etc." 

The Publisher of this Journal has Published a Greek 
Translation of the Book. 

Other Athenian political and literary journals bring like- 
wise reviews. All are full of praise of the author and his 
book. The editor of the journal, Salpinx, of Cyprus, writes 
that the author's name is engraved in the hearts of Greeks. 

D. B. St. John Roosa, M. D., President Post-Graduate 
Medical School and Hospital, New York : " My dear Dr. 
Rose, The copy of the important work written by you, which 
has just been published, came to me two days ago. I write 
to thank you, and again to express my sincere interest in 
your book. I hope you may live to see it successful. A 
common language for scientific men is indeed a great need. 
Yours ever faithfully." 

211 



• B. T. Spencer, A. M,, Professor of Greek, Kentucky Wes- 
leyan College : " I am deeply interested in the subject and 
feel that that interest has been intensified by reading Dr. 
Rose's book. All the friends of Hellas should read it." 

Dr. James T. Whittaker, Cincinnati, Ohio : " I am en- 
joying your book very much and have just finished the chap- 
ter concerning the Greeks under Turkish bondage, which is 
the most interesting description of this subject which I have 
ever seen." 

Knut Hoegh, M. D., Minneapolis, Minn. : " Your book 
came one mail after your letter; I went to a medical meet- 
ing in the evening; during my absence my oldest daughter 
read the book, and on my return, when I opened the door, 
she told me how well she liked it. I had to sit down and 
read it, and I did so until far out in the small hours. I 
must say that the book opened new views to me, and I am 
sorry that I did not know the many valuable facts contained 
in it when I was in Berlin last year, when you know the wind 
that was blowing was anything but Philhellenic. What a forci- 
ble argument against the prevailing order of things in Europe 
is the whole Eastern question ! 

A German translation under the title: Die Griechen und 
ihre Sprache seit der Zeit Konstantin's des Grossen, has been 
published in Leipzig Verlag von Wilhelm Friedrich, 1899. 



212 



!3 



